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.
-
of sufficient or abundant measure; liberal; copious.
an ample reward.
-
of adequate or more than adequate extent, size, or amount; large; spacious; roomy.
ample storage space.
adjective
-
more than sufficient; abundant
an ample helping
-
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:
While domestic mine output remains broadly stable, ample seaborne supply continues to cap the upside, they say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Unless they spend 10 seconds on Google, where there’s ample proof.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The judge also noted that Agarwal was "clearly a man of ample means who has expensive tastes", in contrast to Lee "who was not in that league".
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
“I was really looking for a home base,” she said of her search for the property, adding that its ample space for her children and expansive backyard helped seal the deal.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
This gave ample opportunity to assess the damage caused to the gatehouse door.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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
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
Perhaps as their elders become a bit more forgiving of excess pounds and ampler figures, American youngsters will pick up the cue.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
Maine, N. Vt., Upper Mich., and northward; rare.—Var. màjus, Gray, is a luxuriant form, 2–3° high, with ampler panicle; borders of a swamp, Macomb Co.,
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
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
Even Wordsworth, the most ungracious critic of other men's work in his own art of whom the history of literature gives record, acknowledged Tennyson in the amplest terms.
From A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895) by George Saintsbury
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
Shakespeare are the amplest freight brought home by any voyager.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" 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.
