SUFFICIENCY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sufficiency mean? 

• SUFFICIENCY (noun)
  The noun SUFFICIENCY has 3 senses:

1. sufficient resources to provide comfort and meet obligations

2. an adequate quantity; a quantity that is large enough to achieve a purpose

3. the quality of being sufficient for the end in view

  Familiarity information: SUFFICIENCY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUFFICIENCY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sufficient resources to provide comfort and meet obligations

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

her father questioned the young suitor's sufficiency

Hypernyms ("sufficiency" is a kind of...):

wealth; wealthiness (the state of being rich and affluent; having a plentiful supply of material goods and money)

Derivation:

suffice (be sufficient; be adequate, either in quality or quantity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An adequate quantity; a quantity that is large enough to achieve a purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

enough; sufficiency

Context example:

there is more than a sufficiency of lawyers in this country

Hypernyms ("sufficiency" is a kind of...):

relative quantity (a quantity relative to some purpose)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sufficiency"):

fill (a quantity sufficient to satisfy)

Derivation:

suffice (be sufficient; be adequate, either in quality or quantity)

sufficient (of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement but without being abundant)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of being sufficient for the end in view

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

adequacy; sufficiency

Context example:

he questioned the sufficiency of human intelligence

Hypernyms ("sufficiency" is a kind of...):

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Attribute:

ample (more than enough in size or scope or capacity)

meager; meagerly; meagre; scrimpy; stingy (deficient in amount or quality or extent)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sufficiency"):

ampleness (the property of being more than sufficient; comfortable sufficiency)

Antonym:

insufficiency (lack of an adequate quantity or number)

Derivation:

suffice (be sufficient; be adequate, either in quality or quantity)

sufficient (of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement but without being abundant)

 Context examples 

Their food, as I afterwards found, was coarse, but it was wholesome; and they procured a sufficiency of it.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

In the matter of provisions we had enough to last for several weeks, with a sufficiency of tobacco and a few scientific implements, including a large telescope and a good field-glass.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mrs. Norris, being not at all inclined to question its sufficiency, began to take the matter in another point.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They have a sharp, shrewish look, which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Emma could not like what bordered on a reflection on Mr. Weston, and had half a mind to take it up; but she struggled, and let it pass. She would keep the peace if possible; and there was something honourable and valuable in the strong domestic habits, the all-sufficiency of home to himself, whence resulted her brother's disposition to look down on the common rate of social intercourse, and those to whom it was important.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Almost any exhibition of complete self sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)