dearth
UK/dɜːθ//dɝθ/
dearth noun: a period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
Noun
dearth (countable and uncountable, plural dearths)
- A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
- Scarcity; a lack or short supply.
- I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts...c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- And faine would hee, if he could tell how, haue plentie in his own fields, and scarcity in other mens; superfluitie at home, and dearth abroade, that hee might sell his corne at the dearer rate1634, John Downame, The christian warfare, page 559
- Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.
- Whatsoever doth remaine for money, let Money-mongers, supply when they will. And I referre to Politicians to dispute among themselves whether the dearth of all things which most complaine of doeth proceede from plenty of gold and silver since the late discoveries, or from Monopolies, and...1614, William Camden, Remaines, concerning Britaine: but especially England, and the …, page 210
- O God,heavenly Father, whose gift it is that the rain doth fall, the earth is fruitfull, beasts increase, and fishes do multiply: behold, we beseech thee, the afflictions of thy people, and grant that the scarcity and dearth (which we do now most justly suffer for our iniquitie) may through thy...1660, Church of England, “In the time of dearth and famine.”, in The Book of Common Prayer, page 21
Verb
dearth (third-person singular simple present dearths, present participle dearthing, simple past and past participle dearthed)
dearth meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
dearth in Tamil
- இன்மை, பஞ்சம், பற்றாக்குறை, போதிய அளவின்மை
dearth in Urdu
- گرانی, کال, کمیابی, کمی, خشکی, مہنگائی
dearth in Bengali
- অভাব, আকাল, কোনো কিছুর তীব্র স্বল্পতা
dearth in Telugu
- dearth, famine
- దుర్భిక్షము durbhikṣamu
More languagesFewer languages
- dearth in Malayalam
- പഞ്ഞം paññaṁ
- dearth in Kannada
- ಅಭಾವ, ಕೊರತೆ, ಬರ, ಗೊಟ್ಟು
- dearth in Tagalog
- kulang
- dearth in Persian
- قحطی qahti
Examples of dearth in a sentence
- A dearth of signalmen and the high cost of labour is hastening an elimination process that already was well under way before the second world war.1956 May, C. H. Betts, “St. Pancras Tunnel Signalbox”, in Railway Magazine, page 320:
- Similarly, at Cambridge, I observe what I had seen elsewhere - the dearth of tourists.2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in RAIL, page 50:
- The dearth of A.I. chips has been exacerbated because Nvidia, a longtime provider of the chips, has a virtual lock on the market.2023 August 16, Erin Griffith, “The Desperate Hunt for the A.I. Boom’s Most Indispensable Prize”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- The property of Contraries is, that they become one anothers Cure, whereupon we who have suffered by scarcity and dearth, do pray to be relieved by their contraries, cheapness and plenty1676, Thomas Comber, A Companion to the Temple: The litany, page 309:
Synonyms of dearth
Forms of dearth
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dearths |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dearths |
| present participle | dearthing |
| past participle | dearthed |
| past | dearthed |
Origin of dearth
First attested at least as early as the late 1300s, and appearing in Tyndale’s Pentateuch (1530) as well as the Coverdale Bible (1535). From Middle English derth, derthe, derþe, probably from Old English *dīerþ, *dīerþu, from Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō (“costliness, preciousness, honour”); corresponding to dear + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Old Saxon diuriða (“glory, honour; preciousness”), West Frisian djoerte (“love, dearness, value, worth”), Dutch duurte (“dearness; scarcity, dearth”), Icelandic dýrð (“honour, glory”).
Words formed from dearth
Words that rhyme with dearth
2 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about dearth
- What does dearth mean?
- Dearth means a period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
- What is dearth in Tamil?
- Dearth in Tamil is இன்மை, பஞ்சம், பற்றாக்குறை. See Dearth meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use dearth in a sentence?
- A dearth of signalmen and the high cost of labour is hastening an elimination process that already was well under way before the second world war.
- What part of speech is dearth?
- Dearth can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce dearth?
- Dearth is pronounced /dɜːθ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of dearth?
- The plural of dearth is dearths.
Words near dearth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dearth (page history and authors); dearth (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dearth (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dearth (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); దుర్భిక్షము (Telugu) (page history and authors); പഞ്ഞം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); dearth (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dearth.ogg, en-au-dearth.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dearth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dearth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.