Word.ws English Dictionary

lacking

/ˈlækɪŋ/

lacking is the present participle and gerund of lack.

Meaning of lack

Verb

lack (third-person singular simple present lacks, present participle lacking, simple past and past participle lacked)

  1. (stative, transitive) To be without, not to have, to need, to require.
    • My life lacks excitement.
  2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).
    • He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) 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
  4. (obsolete) 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
  5. (African-American Vernacular) To be off one's guard.
    • His opps caught him lacking.

See all 7 meanings of lack

Noun

lacking (plural lackings)

  1. The absence of something that is desirable or otherwise ought to be present.
    • Cagliostro, however, whatever his moral lackings, did not lack spirit; he was not the man to succumb to this kind of coercion.1914, Sax Rohmer, The Romance of Sorcery
    Synonyms:
    lack

Adjective

lacking (comparative more lacking, superlative most lacking)

  1. Missing or not having enough of (a good quality, etc).
    • This cheese is lacking in pungency.
    • The team was lacking in stamina and lost the match decidedly.
    Synonyms:
    absent, awanting, bereft of, deficient of, deprived of, destitute of, devoid of, leer, poor in, robbed of

Synonyms of lacking

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms
  • robbed of
  • shorn of
  • stripped of
  • void of
  • wanting

Antonyms

Forms of lacking

Noun
plurallackings
Adjective
comparativemore lacking
superlativemost lacking

Words formed from lacking

Phrases with lacking

Questions about lacking

What does lacking mean?
Lacking means the absence of something that is desirable or otherwise ought to be present.
What is lacking the present participle and gerund of?
Lacking is the present participle and gerund of lack.
What part of speech is lacking?
Lacking can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce lacking?
Lacking is pronounced /ˈlækɪŋ/.
What is the plural of lacking?
The plural of lacking is lackings.

Words near lacking in the dictionary

  1. lackeyship
  2. Lackford
  3. lackherage
  4. Lackie
  5. lackies
  6. lacking
  7. lackingly
  8. lackingness
  9. lackings
  10. lackland
  11. lacklands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lacking (page history and authors); lack (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lacking.ogg.

Cite this entry: “lacking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lacking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.