adjective
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adequate or suitable; acceptable
a satisfactory answer
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giving satisfaction
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constituting or involving atonement, recompense, or expiation for sin
Other Word Forms
- presatisfactory adjective
- satisfactorily adverb
- satisfactoriness noun
Etymology
Origin of satisfactory
First recorded in 1520–30; from Medieval Latin satisfactōrius, from Latin satisfac(ere) “to do enough” ( satisfaction ( def. ) ) + -tōrius -tory 1
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.
If the United States wins the WBC championship Tuesday, when no outcome besides victory would have been satisfactory, the team will explode in celebration.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2026
So if Pirro “gets some answers and the answers are satisfactory, then we can move on,” Bessent said.
From Barron's • Jan. 17, 2026
"In my view, it is not just or reasonable for him to pay a chartered flight when I have been given no satisfactory explanation for why that should be."
From BBC • Jan. 15, 2026
“My early books that are primarily in Latin used to be completely inaccessible, but you can take a photograph of them, put them into ChatGPT, and out comes a very satisfactory translation.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
It was twelve o’clock before I got any satisfactory hint of such a building, and this I got at a coffee-shop, where some workmen were having their dinner.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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.
