Enough
adv, det, intj, noun, pron ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An instance of being sufficient, or of doing something sufficiently. in-plural, rare
"And she was neither beautiful nor handsome, but just at the point halfway between which a girl of twenty-three reaches who inherits good features and healthful figure, and who has learned to dance well, ride well, study enough, golf enough, and has attained the thousand other "well and enoughs" which include talking well and listening enough, and allow a woman to be liked and loved with so little consciousness that she never suspects she is particularly liked at all."
- 2 an adequate quantity; a quantity that is large enough to achieve a purpose wordnet
- 1 sufficient for the purpose wordnet
- 1 Sufficiently.
"Those pears aren't ripe enough for the children to eat (them)."
- 2 Fully; quite; used after adjectives to express slight augmentation of the positive degree, and sometimes equivalent to very.
"He is ready enough to accept the offer."
- 3 Used after certain adverbs to emphasise that a quality is notable, unexpected, etc.
"Talking of Mr Smith, funnily enough, I saw him just the other day."
- 1 as much as necessary wordnet
- 1 Sufficient; all that is required, needed, or appropriate.; Used before a noun in the manner of words like some, a bit of, and so on.
"I've already had enough coffee today."
- 2 Sufficient; all that is required, needed, or appropriate.; Used after a noun. archaic
"There is food enough for us all."
- 1 A sufficient or adequate number, amount, etc.
"I have enough (of it) to keep me going."
- 1 Stop! Don't do that any more!
"I'm sick of you complaining! Enough!"
Example
More examples"I don't speak French well enough!"
Etymology
From Middle English ynogh, from Old English ġenōg (“enough”), from Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz (“enough”) (compare Scots eneuch, West Frisian genôch, Dutch genoeg, German genug, Low German (ge)noog, Danish nok, Swedish nog, Icelandic nógur), from *ganuganą 'to suffice' (compare Old English ġeneah), or from *ga- + an unattested *nōgaz, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂nó(n)ḱe (“he has reached, attained”), perfective of *h₂neḱ- (“to reach”) (compare Old Irish tánaic (“he arrived”), Latin nancisci (“to get”), Albanian kënaq (“to please, satisfy”).).
Related phrases
More for "enough"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.