sufficiency Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun sufficient resources to provide comfort and meet obligations
    • her father questioned the young suitor's sufficiency
  2. noun an adequate quantity; a quantity that is large enough to achieve a purpose
    enough.
    • enough is as good as a feast
    • there is more than a sufficiency of lawyers in this country
  3. noun the quality of being sufficient for the end in view
    adequacy.
    • he questioned the sufficiency of human intelligence

WordNet

Suf*fi"cien*cy noun
Etymology
L. sufficientia: cf. F. suffisance. See Suffice.
Definitions
  1. The quality or state of being sufficient, or adequate to the end proposed; adequacy.
    His sufficiency is such that he bestows and possesses, his plenty being unexhausted. Boyle.
  2. Qualification for any purpose; ability; capacity.
    A substitute or most allowed sufficiency. Shak.
    I am not so confident of my own sufficiency as not willingly to admit the counsel of others. Eikon Basilike.
  3. Adequate substance or means; competence. "An elegant sufficiency." Thomson.
  4. Supply equal to wants; ample stock or fund.
  5. Conceit; self-confidence; self-sufficiency.
    Sufficiency is a compound of vanity and ignorance. Sir W. Temple.

Webster 1913