Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of large or great size, amount, extent, or capacity: synonym: spacious.
  • adjective Fully sufficient to meet a need or purpose: synonym: plentiful.
  • adjective Plump or bulky.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Large in dimensions; of great size, extent, capacity, or bulk; wide; spacious; extended.
  • Large in kind or degree; having full scope or extent; copious; unrestricted; unrestrained: as, an ample narrative; to give ample praise, or do ample justice.
  • Fully sufficient for any purpose, or for the purpose specified; abundant; liberal; plentiful: as, ample provision for the table.
  • Synonyms Ample, Copious, Plenteous, spacious, roomy, extensive, extended, wide, capacious, abundant, sufficient, full, enough, unrestricted, plenary, unstinted. (See lists under abundant and large.) Ample, in its more common uses, has reference to the sufficiency of the supply for every need; copious carries with it the idea of the unfailingness of the source; while plenteous usually indicates largeness of quantity in actual possession: as, ample stores or resources; a copious supply of materials; a plenteous harvest.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Large; great in size, extent, capacity, or bulk; spacious; roomy; widely extended.
  • adjective Fully sufficient; abundant; liberal; copious
  • adjective Not contracted of brief; not concise; extended; diffusive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Large; great in size, extent, capacity, or bulk; spacious; roomy; widely extended.
  • adjective Fully sufficient; abundant; liberal; copious; as, an ample fortune; ample justice.
  • adjective Not contracted or brief; not concise; extended; diffusive; as, an ample narrative.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective fairly large
  • adjective more than enough in size or scope or capacity
  • adjective affording an abundant supply

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin amplus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French ample, from Latin amplus ("large"), probably for ambiplus ("full on both sides"), the last syllable akin to Latin plenus ("full").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Cleavage is often preceded by the term "ample" and one customarily "sports" it.

    January 21, 2014