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paucity

noun
/ˈpɒs.ɪ.ti/UK/ˈpɔs.ɪ.ti/US/ˈpɑ.sɪ.ti/

Etymology

From Middle English paucete, paucite, paucyte, partly from Middle French paucité and partly from its etymon, Latin paucitās (“a small number, fewness, scarcity”), from paucus (“few, little”). Related to few.

  1. derived from paucitās
  2. derived from paucité
  3. inherited from paucete

Definitions

  1. Fewness in number

    Fewness in number; too few.

    • But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves.
    • For sheer paucity of railway facilities, probably the record in Great Britain is held by the Scottish county of Nairn, which has about eight miles of railway and two stations—Nairn and Auldearn.
    • This paucity of trains helps to explain why electrification is not planned between Paris and Belfort.

  2. A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient

    A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.

    • Now came shipwrecks and life in open boats, with the usual paucity of food.
    • Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for paucity. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA