hinreichende

Hinreichende is a German adjective meaning sufficient or adequate to meet a given standard. It is used to indicate that something provides enough grounds, reasons, or evidence for a particular purpose. The form hinreichende is used attributively before feminine singular nouns (die hinreichende Beweislage) and before plural nouns (die hinreichenden Beweise), as well as in related feminine or plural contexts. In predicative use, the predicate adjective can appear as hinreichend: Die Beweise sind hinreichend or Die Gründe sind hinreichend begründet. The adverbial sense hinreichend exists as well, meaning sufficiently, but in many contexts it is interchangeable with ausreichend or genügen.

In legal and administrative language, hinreichend is especially common to denote that the evidentiary or factual basis meets a required threshold: hinreichende Beweislage, hinreichende Gründe, hinreichende Grundlage. The term often carries a normative nuance: something is deemed adequate to justify a decision or action. It is distinct from synonyms like ausreichend or genügen, where ausreichend is more neutral and allgemein accepted, while hinreichend emphasizes sufficiency with respect to a specific standard or rule.

Etymology: hinreichend is formed from reichen (to be enough) with the directional prefix hin- and the participialSuffix -end to create an adjective. It appears in Middle High German and Early New High German and remains productive in modern usage, especially in formal, juridical, and policy contexts.

See also: ausreichend, genügen, Beweislage, Grundlage.