Suffice

How to spell suffice

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce suffice

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suffice mean?

1. verbTo be enough or adequate for a particular need or purpose.

Suffice in a sentence

• A short note will suffice to confirm the booking.

• The small heater should suffice for a room this size.

Where does suffice come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Suffice comes from the Latin verb sufficere, which literally meant 'to put under' or 'to supply', built from sub- meaning 'up to' or 'under' and facere meaning 'to make' or 'to do'. In Latin the sense drifted from 'putting something underneath as a support' to 'providing enough', so sufficere came to mean 'to be adequate'. English took the word in the 1300s through Old French suffire, and the spelling settled on the Latinate -fice ending rather than the French shape. That facere root is enormously productive in English and lurks inside a crowd of relatives such as 'sufficient', 'efficient', 'profit', and 'factory', all of which trace back to the idea of making or doing. The spelling trap is the single f followed by -fice (sounding like 'fice'), since writers sometimes expect a double letter or a -ise ending that simply is not there.

How the word is built

• suf- (form of sub-: up to, under)
• -fice (from Latin facere: to make, to do)