suffice
UK/səˈfaɪs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Canada/ˈsʌ.fɪs/
suffice verb: to be enough or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be adequate; to be good enough.
Verb
suffice (third-person singular simple present suffices, present participle sufficing, simple past and past participle sufficed)
- To be enough or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be adequate; to be good enough.
- For this plum cake, two eggs should suffice.
- To recount almighty works, / What words or tongue of seraph can suffice?1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Synonyms:
- work
- To satisfy; to content; to be equal to the wants or demands of.
- A joint of lamb sufficed even his enormous appetite.
- Lord Brougham's salary would have sufficed more than ninety Prussian judges.1838, The Church of England quarterly review, page 203
- To furnish; to supply adequately.
- During the festival, the temple suffices food to the beggars.
- The king sufficed his army with food and weapons before the great battle.
suffice meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
suffice in Hindi
- be enough, sufficient, adequate
- काफ़ी होना kāfī honā, पूरा पड़ना pūrā paṛnā
suffice in Tamil
- be enough, sufficient, adequate
- போது pōtu, போரு pōru, பற்று paṟṟu, காண் kāṇ
suffice in Marathi
- to suffice, last; to be sufficient
- पुरणे purṇe
suffice in Urdu
- پورا اترنا
More languagesFewer languages
- suffice in Bengali
- পর্যাপ্ত হওয়া, কুলাল
- suffice in Telugu
- చాలు cālu, పట్టు paṭṭu
- suffice in Malayalam
- മതിയാകുക, പര്യാപ്തമാകുക, പൂർത്തിയാക്കുക, തികയുക
- suffice in Kannada
- ಸಾಕು sāku
- suffice in Assamese
- কুলা kula
- suffice in Nepali
- पुग्नु pugnu
- suffice in Arabic
- كَفَى kafā
- suffice in Persian
- کفایت کردن kefâyat kardan
- suffice in Vietnamese
- đủ, là đủ
- suffice in Myanmar
- တော် tau, လောက် lauk
Examples of suffice in a sentence
- It became clear that a chronic do-nothing approach to the problem's management would no longer suffice.
- Suffice it to say that we will not be buying you any more cars in the future.
- A comfortable income should suffice to consider oneself rich.
Synonyms of suffice
Forms of suffice
| third-person singular present | suffices |
|---|---|
| present participle | sufficing |
| past participle | sufficed |
| past | sufficed |
Origin of suffice
From Middle English suffisen, from Middle French souffire, from Latin sufficiō (“supply, be adequate”), from sub (“under”) + faciō (“do, make”). Cognate with French suffire.
Words formed from suffice
Phrases with suffice
Words that rhyme with suffice
Questions about suffice
- What does suffice mean?
- Suffice means to be enough or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be adequate; to be good enough.
- What is suffice in Hindi?
- Suffice in Hindi is काफ़ी होना (kāfī honā), पूरा पड़ना (pūrā paṛnā). See Suffice meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is suffice?
- Suffice is a verb.
- How do you pronounce suffice?
- Suffice is pronounced /səˈfaɪs/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of suffice?
- The past tense of suffice is sufficed.
Words near suffice in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: suffice (page history and authors); पुरणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); suffice (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); suffice (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చాలు (Telugu) (page history and authors); suffice (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಸಾಕು (Kannada) (page history and authors); पुग्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-suffice.ogg, en-au-suffice.ogg.
Cite this entry: “suffice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/suffice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.