satisfactory

Borrowed from Middle French satisfactoire, from Late Latin satisfactōrius, from Latin satisfactus, past participle of satisfaciō.

• IPA^(key): /sætɪsˈfækt(ə)ɹi/

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satisfactory (comparative more satisfactory, superlative most satisfactory)

1. Done to satisfaction; adequate or sufficient.

   The satisfactory results of the survey led to his promotion.

   • 1955, Erich Fromm, The Sane Society‎, Fawcet:

     The criterion of mental health is not one of individual adjustment to a given social order, but a universal one, valid for all men, of giving a satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

2. Causing satisfaction; agreeable or pleasant.
   • 1870, Charles Dudley Warner, “Preliminary”, in My Summer in a Garden, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 15:

     To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch their renewal of life,—this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do.

3. (theology) Making atonement for a sin; expiatory.
   • 1623, John Mayer, The English Catechisme Explained, third edition, London: Aug. Mathewes, page 36:

     […] therefore the ſuffering of any other nature could not bee ſo pertinent, nor kindly ſatisfactory.

• satisfactorily (adv)
• satisfaction (n)
• satisfied (adj)
• unsatisfactory (adj)