enough

Enough is a versatile word in English that expresses sufficiency or adequacy. It functions as a determiner, a pronoun, and an adverb, allowing it to modify nouns, stand alone, or qualify adjectives and verbs. As a determiner, it precedes a noun to indicate that the quantity is sufficient: enough time, enough food. As a pronoun, it can stand alone: there isn’t enough. As an adverb, it follows adjectives or other adverbs or appears before infinitives in phrases such as big enough, fast enough, or enough to finish the job. It can also appear with of to refer to part of a whole: enough of the people.

Etymology traces enough to Old English genog or genog, with common Germanic cognates such as Dutch genoeg and German genug. The word shares a Proto-Germanic origin and has cognates across several West Germanic languages, reflecting a long-standing concept of sufficiency in the family of languages.

Usage and grammar notes: not enough is a frequent negative form signaling insufficiency, while enough to + verb expresses sufficiency to enable an action. Enough can modify both mass and count nouns (enough money, enough books) and can appear in phrases like enough of this or enough of that to indicate a portion or subset. Common antonyms include insufficient and inadequate; synonyms include sufficient, adequate, and ample.

Common phrases include enough is enough, good enough, and enough said. These usages illustrate how enough serves to balance quantity, qualification, and decision-making in everyday speech.