paucity
UK/ˈpɒs.ɪ.ti//ˈpɔs.ɪ.ti/
paucity noun: fewness in number; too few.
Noun
paucity (countable and uncountable, plural paucities)
- 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.1915, Anna Katharine Green, The Golden Slipper, problem 7
- 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.1959 October, “Counties with Few Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 662
- Synonyms:
- fewness
- A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.
- It cannot be denied it [the chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Cameleon”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 133
- Now came shipwrecks and life in open boats, with the usual paucity of food.1898, Mark Twain, At the Appetite-Cure
- Synonyms:
- dearth
paucity meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
paucity in Hindi
- fewness in number; a small number
- अल्पता alpatā, दुर्लभता durlabhtā
paucity in Tamil
- அருமை, சின்னம், பற்றாமை, போதாமை, தட்டுப்பாடு
paucity in Urdu
- کمی, کوتاہی, قلت
paucity in Malayalam
- അഭാവം, പോരായ്മ, കുറവ്, ദൗർലഭ്യം
More languagesFewer languages
- paucity in Kannada
- ಕೊರತೆ, ನ್ಯೂನತೆ, ಅಭಾವ, ಅಲ್ಪತೆ
- paucity in Sanskrit
- ह्रास hrāsa
Examples of paucity in a sentence
- This paucity of trains helps to explain why electrification is not planned between Paris and Belfort.1963 January, “Beyond the Channel: France”, in Modern Railways, page 60:
- Your tax refund might be late, owing to a paucity of number crunchers.2006 July 13, Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman, “Uncle Sam Wants You”, in Time, archived from the original on 10 Oct 2009:
- Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest.1915, Gene Stratton-Porter, chapter 12, in Michael O'Halloran:
- Genteel America was handicapped by meagerness of soul, thinness of temper, paucity of talent.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 407:
Synonyms of paucity
Forms of paucity
| plural | paucities |
|---|
Origin of paucity
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.
Questions about paucity
- What does paucity mean?
- Paucity means fewness in number; too few.
- What is paucity in Hindi?
- Paucity in Hindi is अल्पता (alpatā), दुर्लभता (durlabhtā). See Paucity meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use paucity in a sentence?
- This paucity of trains helps to explain why electrification is not planned between Paris and Belfort.
- What part of speech is paucity?
- Paucity is a noun.
- How do you pronounce paucity?
- Paucity is pronounced /ˈpɒs.ɪ.ti/ (UK).
- What is the plural of paucity?
- The plural of paucity is paucities.
Words near paucity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: paucity (page history and authors); paucity (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); paucity (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); paucity (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); paucity (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ह्रास (Sanskrit) (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-paucity.oga.
Cite this entry: “paucity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/paucity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.