ample
Americanadjective
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fully sufficient or more than adequate for the purpose or needs; plentiful; enough: ample time to finish.
an ample supply of water;
ample time to finish.
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of sufficient or abundant measure; liberal; copious.
an ample reward.
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of adequate or more than adequate extent, size, or amount; large; spacious; roomy.
ample storage space.
adjective
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more than sufficient; abundant
an ample helping
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large in size, extent, or amount
of ample proportions
Usage
What does ample mean? Ample means enough—sufficient or adequate. It can also mean more than enough—plentiful or abundant. It is often used in the context of things like time, room, space, supplies, or resources (such as food and money) to indicate that there is enough or more than enough of what is needed. Sometimes, ample means large in size, extent, or amount, as in It was an ample tract of land. Ample can be used in front of a noun, as in We have ample funds to cover the purchase, or elsewhere in the sentence, as in The payment was ample. The adverb form of ample is amply, meaning sufficiently or abundantly, as in He gave amply to charity. Example: There was no one else there, so there was ample space to spread out.
Synonym Usage
See plentiful. Ample, liberal, copious, profuse describe degrees of abundant provision. Ample implies a plentiful provision: to give ample praise. Liberal implies provision from a generous supply (more than ample but less than copious ): Liberal amounts of food were distributed to people who needed it. Copious implies an apparently inexhaustible and lavish abundance: a copious flow of tears. Profuse implies a still more unrestrained abundance of provision or flow: profuse in his apologies.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ample
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin amplus “wide, large”
Explanation
Ample describes an abundance of something. An ample supply of apple muffins at the bake sale is a good thing, as is ample legroom in your new van — but if the vet notices your dog's ample waistline, you might have to put Fido on a diet. Like amplify (crank up the volume), ample is from the Latin word amplus, meaning "large or spacious." Ample can be enough or even too much of something. It's great when there's ample parking or ample snacks for a hike, and we'd all be happy if we had ample time and money. But there are things that some people don't want more of — if your principal has ample evidence that you started the food fight in the cafeteria, you're probably going to end up in detention.
Vocabulary lists containing ample
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "A"
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Management had ample financial firepower to buy during that ascent and didn’t.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Rain is forecast for much of Thursday and much of Friday, though England's first-day efforts have already given them ample time to begin Root's second reign with victory.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Depicted with potted plants, ample relaxation room, and chic luggage storage under Saarinen tulip tables, the people mover, the video promises, “will perhaps be best known for its convenience and its feeling of luxury.”
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
I left home with $45 in cash—which felt ample, even indulgent—and one of the crinkly blue totes I had picked up on our last trip to the suburban IKEA.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
They knew it was a rough and homely place compared to the farmhouses along the road and the ample mansions around the village green.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
With adapters no longer inhibited or intimidated, works totalling over 1,000 pages are tamed by gleefully drastic slashing and/or exploiting the ampler air-time available in TV series.
From The Guardian ● May 11, 2013
The main house was rebuilt in ampler proportions, two houses for the sons, a house for Judge Medina's mother, a remodeled library, a boathouse and numerous outbuildings.
From Time Magazine Archive
We thank Thee that once again men may have hope, opportunity to work and plan for a better future, a chance to secure peace and an ampler life for themselves and their children.
From Time Magazine Archive
Their collection this year tends to be ampler as Bardot demonstrated by modeling one of her striped angora sweater-tunics and gold lame thigh boots.
From Time Magazine Archive
How much ampler then is God's presence, and his might, and his visitation everywhere!
From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
Just across Fifth Avenue from Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum, the U.S.'s amplest conservatory of time-tested art, is a hothouse of the newest and least tested.
From Time Magazine Archive
"These States are the amplest poem, Here is not merely a nation but a teeming Nation of nations."
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet in the interval the emperor's own father had acknowledged in the amplest terms the authority of St. Peter's successor.
From The Formation of Christendom, Volume VII by Thomas W. Allies
Great talent, the amplest civil experience, and the purest patriotism are an inadequate basis of strength for an administration.
From The Works of Daniel Webster, Volume 1 by Daniel Webster
He made amplest provision for his family always, and I believe had a kind nature, but he manifested no little fondnesses, nor did he wish caresses for himself.
From The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 4, November 1, 1851 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
