lack
/læk/
lack noun: a deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth. Also the archaic form of lakh.
Noun
lack (countable and uncountable, plural lacks)
- A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
- It is a question of money, or lack of same.
- […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Synonyms:
- paucity
- A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
- In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
Verb
lack (third-person singular simple present lacks, present participle lacking, simple past and past participle lacked)
- To be without, not to have, to need, to require.
- My life lacks excitement.
- More flak was aimed at the Treasury's apparent lack of marketing skills, when it was argued that its idea of how to sell tickets was along the lines of "you can get two tickets for the price of two", and it lacks the sales and promotional skills of the train operating companies which are needed to...2022 January 12, Tom Allett, “Network News: MPs concerned at Treasury's influence on rail industry”, in RAIL, number 948, page 13
- To be short (of or for something).
- He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
- Hamlet. What hour now?
Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- To be in want.
- The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger […]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 34:10
- To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
- That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.c. 1378-9, [William Langland], “[Passus II]”, in The Vision of Pierce Plowman [...] (Cr, B-text), London: […] Roberte Crowley, […], published 1550, →OCLC
- To be off one's guard.
- His opps caught him lacking.
Also used as
lack is also the archaic form of lakh.
lack meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
lack in Hindi
- deficiency, need
- कमी kamī, अभाव abhāv, अपर्याप्त aparyāpt
lack in Urdu
- deficiency, need
- کمی kamī
lack in Bengali
- অভাব
lack in Malayalam
- deficiency, need
- ഇല്ലായ്മ illāyma, അഭാവം abhāvaṁ
More languagesFewer languages
- lack in Kannada
- ಕೊರತೆ
- lack in Gujarati
- અભાવ
- lack in Assamese
- নাটনি natoni, অনাটন onaton
- lack in Arabic
- نَقْص naqṣ, عَدَم وُجُود ʕadam wujūd
- lack in Vietnamese
- thiếu
Examples of lack in a sentence
- The politician was criticized for his ambiguous statements and lack of precision.
- Vigilantes may have the power to nab criminals, but they lack the authority.
- The house of delegates in apartheid-era South Africa lacked any real voting power.
Synonyms of lack
- paucity
- dearth
- deficiency
- deficit
- dejection
- inadequacy
- infrequency
- insufficiency
- meagerness
- nonsufficiency
9 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of lack
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lacks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lacks |
| present participle | lacking |
| past participle | lacked |
| past | lacked |
Origin of lack
From Middle English lack, lakke, lak, from Old English *læc (“deficiency, lack, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak, from Proto-Germanic *laką, *lakaz (“slackness”), from Proto-Germanic *lakaz (“limp, slack, loose, low”), related to *lak(k)ōną (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Lak (“lack”), Middle Low German lack, lak (“lack”), Dutch lak (“lack, deficiency, calumny”), Icelandic lakur (“lacking”). Related also to Middle Dutch laken (“to blame, lack”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English carence (“absence, lack”), from Old French carence.
From Middle English lacken, lakken, laken, from Old English læccian, *lacian (“to blame, criticise, lack”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak(k)ōn (“to blame, be lacking”), from Proto-Germanic *lak(k)ōną (“to reproach, blame, be lacking”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Old Frisian lakia, lekia (“to contest, blame”), Middle Low German lacken, laken (“to reproach, blame, criticise”), Middle Dutch laken (“to disapprove, blame, lack”), Dutch laken (“to blame, reproach”).
Words formed from lack
Words that rhyme with lack
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- plaque
- whack
- slack
- Cadillac
- swack
- thwack
- pac
- shack
- bivouac
- cack
- clack
- gack
- smack
- unpack
- wrack
- aback
- flak
- hark back
- mack
- claque
- flack
- knack
- quack
- shellac
- snack
- yak
- Aach
- ack
- gak
- mac
- Meshach
- multitrack
- plack
- snacc
- wack
- akh
- alack
- awrack
- brach
- cac
- Cayman Brac
- Chiraq
- cook back
- craic
- diclofenac
- dictionary attack
- dime back
- fac
Questions about lack
- What does lack mean?
- Lack means a deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
- What is lack in Hindi?
- Lack in Hindi is कमी (kamī), अभाव (abhāv), अपर्याप्त (aparyāpt). See Lack meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lack?
- Lack can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce lack?
- Lack is pronounced /læk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of lack?
- The plural of lack is lacks.
Words near lack in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lack (page history and authors); lack (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lack (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lack (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-lack.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lack.wav.
Cite this entry: “lack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.