hinreichend

Hinreichend is a German adjective and adverb meaning sufficient or adequate to meet a given requirement. In formal and legal language it signals that something satisfies the necessary threshold, without asserting more than what is required. It is commonly used with nouns such as Beweis, Gründe, Nachweise or Verdacht.

Etymology and nuance: The word combines the verb reichen (to be enough) with the directional prefix hin-, which adds emphasis or specificity. Hinreichend implies adequacy for a purpose or standard in a particular context, rather than overall completeness. This makes it more formal than everyday equivalents like genügen or genug, and it is frequently encountered in administrative, academic, and legal texts.

Typical usage: As an attributive adjective: hinreichender Beweis, hinreichende Gründe, hinreichende Kenntnisse. As a predicative expression: Es ist hinreichend belegt; Es besteht hinreichender Verdacht. The term often appears where a threshold must be demonstrated, for example in court decisions, grant evaluations, or compliance assessments.

Relation to other terms: Ausreichend is closely related and often interchangeable in many contexts, though hinreichend carries a nuance of meeting a defined standard rather than simply being more than enough. Genug or genügende is less formal and more common in everyday language.

See also: Beweis, Begründung, Verdacht, Rechtslage. In German legal writing, hinreichend is a standard qualifier for sufficiency that helps delineate the point at which a conclusion or action becomes justifiable.