- not large, strong or important enough for a particular purpose synonym inadequate
- insufficient time
- The management paid insufficient attention to working conditions.
- There are fears that the existing flood barrier may prove insufficient.
- I’m afraid we have insufficient evidence.
- insufficient to do something His salary is insufficient to meet his needs.
- insufficient for something The plan was to refurbish the whole building but the funds raised were insufficient for the purpose.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- prove
- quite
- wholly
- simply
- …
- for
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘incapable, incompetent’): via Old French from late Latin insufficient- ‘not sufficing’, from in- ‘not’ + Latin sufficere ‘put under, meet the need of’ (from sub- ‘under’ + facere ‘make’).Definitions on the go
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insufficient