Necessary vs. Sufficient — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Necessary and Sufficient
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Necessary
Needed or required
A contract complete with the necessary signatures.
Conditions necessary to life.
Sufficient
Being as much as is needed; adequate; enough.
Necessary
Unavoidably determined by prior conditions or circumstances; inevitable
The necessary results of overindulgence.
Sufficient
(Archaic) Competent; qualified.
Necessary
Logically inevitable
A necessary conclusion.
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Sufficient
An adequate quantity of; enough.
We have sufficient supplies to last the winter.
There is not sufficient access to the Internet in many small rural villages.
Necessary
Required by obligation, compulsion, or convention
Made the necessary apologies.
Sufficient
(as pronoun) A quantity (of something) that is as large as is needed.
We don't need any more; we already have sufficient.
Sufficient of us are against this idea that we should stop now.
Necessary
Something indispensable.
Sufficient
Of a type or kind that suffices, that satisfies requirements or needs.
This is a necessary condition but not a sufficient one.
Necessary
Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.
Although I wished to think that all was false, it was yet necessary that I, who thus thought, must in some sense exist.
It is absolutely necessary that you call and confirm your appointment.
Sufficient
Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit.
Necessary
Unavoidable, inevitable.
If it is absolutely necessary to use public computers, you should plan ahead and forward your e-mail to a temporary, disposable account.
Sufficient
(archaic) Capable of meeting obligations; responsible.
Necessary
(obsolete) Determined, involuntary: acting from compulsion rather than free will.
Sufficient
(obsolete) Having enough money to meet obligations and live comfortably.
Necessary
A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.
Sufficient
Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent; as, provision sufficient for the family; an army sufficient to defend the country.
My grace is sufficient for thee.
Necessary
(obsolete) Necessity.
Sufficient
Possessing adequate talents or accomplishments; of competent power or ability; qualified; fit.
Who is sufficient for these things?
Necessary
Such as must be; impossible to be otherwise; not to be avoided; inevitable.
Death, a necessary end,Will come when it will come.
Sufficient
Capable of meeting obligations; responsible.
The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient . . . I think I may take his bond.
Necessary
Impossible to be otherwise, or to be dispensed with, without preventing the attainment of a desired result; indispensable; requisite; essential.
A certain kind of temper is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds.
Sufficient
Self-sufficient; self-satisfied; content.
Thou art the most sufficient (I'll say for thee),Not to believe a thing.
Necessary
Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; - opposed to free; as, whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed.
Sufficient
Of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement but without being abundant;
Sufficient food
Necessary
A thing that is necessary or indispensable to some purpose; something that one can not do without; a requisite; an essential; - used chiefly in the plural; as, the necessaries of life.
Necessary
A privy; a water-closet.
Necessary
Such things, in respect to infants, lunatics, and married women, as are requisite for support suitable to station.
Necessary
Anything indispensable;
Food and shelter are necessities of life
The essentials of the good life
Allow farmers to buy their requirements under favorable conditions
A place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can be obtained
Necessary
Absolutely essential
Necessary
Unavoidably determined by prior circumstances;
The necessary consequences of one's actions
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