scarce
UK/ˈskɛəs//ˈskɛɚs/
scarce adjective: uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
Adjective
scarce (comparative scarcer, superlative scarcest)
- Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
- By the end of the 20th century elephants had become scarce even in Africa.
- You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen in value one fifth.1691, [John Locke], Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1692, →OCLC
- Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.
- The project failed due to the scarce resources in the national market.
- a region scarce of prey1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
Adverb
scarce (not comparable)
- Scarcely, only just.
- The Virgin quite for her requeſt / The God that ſits at marriage feaſt; / He at their invoking came / But with a ſcarce-wel-lighted flame; / And in his Garland as he ſtood, / Ye might diſcern a Cipreſs bud.1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC, page 24
- I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for...1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London...
Proper noun capitalized: Scarce
Scarce (plural Scarces)
- A surname.
scarce meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
scarce in Tamil
- அரிதான
scarce in Urdu
- کمیاب, نایاب, تھوڑا, عنقا
scarce in Malayalam
- അപൂർവ്വമായ, ദുർലഭമായ, സാധാരണയല്ലാത്ത
scarce in Kannada
- ವಿರಳ, ಅಪರೂಪದ, ದುರ್ಲಭವಾದ, ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ದೊರೆಯದ, ಕೊರತೆ ಇರುವ, ಅಭಾವವಾಗಿರುವ
More languagesFewer languages
- scarce in Sanskrit
- दीन dīná
- scarce in Tagalog
- uyak
- scarce in Arabic
- نَادِر nādir
- scarce in Indonesian
- langka
- scarce in Persian
- ناکافی nâkâfi, کمیاب kamyâb, نادر nâder, اندک
Examples of scarce in a sentence
- Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations...
- And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, / That I scarce was sure I heard you […]1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London...
- Yet had I scarce set foot in the passage when I stopped, remembering how once already this same evening I had played the coward, and run home scared with my own fears.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
Synonyms of scarce
Forms of scarce
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | scarcer |
| superlative | scarcest |
| alternative form | scace |
| alternative form (obsolete) | scarse |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Scarces |
Origin of scarce
From Middle English scars, scarse, from Old Northern French scars, escars ("sparing, niggard, parsimonious, miserly, poor"; > French échars, Medieval Latin scarsus (“diminished, reduced”)), of uncertain origin. One theory is that it derives originally from a Late Latin *scarpsus, *excarpsus, a participle form of *excarpere (“take out”), from Latin ex- + carpere; yet the sense evolution is difficult to trace. Compare Middle Dutch schaers (“scarce”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”). The standard pronunciation having the /ɛə(ɹ)/ vowel instead of expected /ɑː(ɹ)/ is due to a tendency for Old and Middle French preconsonantal /ar/ to be borrowed as Middle English /aːr/ that only survives in this word and dace in the modern standard, but is more frequent in Early Modern English and traditional dialects; compare Scots gairden (“garden”), lairge (“large”).
Words formed from scarce
Phrases with scarce
Questions about scarce
- What does scarce mean?
- Scarce means uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
- What is scarce in Tamil?
- Scarce in Tamil is அரிதான. See Scarce meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use scarce in a sentence?
- Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.
- What part of speech is scarce?
- Scarce can be an adjective, an adverb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce scarce?
- Scarce is pronounced /ˈskɛəs/ (UK).
Words near scarce in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scarce (page history and authors); Scarce (page history and authors); scarce (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scarce (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scarce (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scarce (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); दीन (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scarce.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scarce.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scarce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.