Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use deficient in a sentence

29 example sentences · adjective, noun

Deficient means lacking something essential; often construed with in. Example: “They were deficient in social skills.”

Examples of deficient by meaning

adjectiveLacking something essential; often construed with in.

  • They were deficient in social skills.
  • His voice is beautiful but deficient in power.
  • My diet is deficient in vitamin D.

nounA person who is deficient.

  • This was justified by the rationale that mental deficients, by definition, are not able to succeed in society.2004, Steven Noll, James Trent, Mental Retardation in America: A Historical Reader, page 316

More sentences with deficient

  • The crewing of the vessel before the crash was deficient.From the entry crew
  • After becoming deficient in vitamin A, the patient became xerophthalmic.From the entry xerophthalmic
  • He was strikingly deficient in good sense.From the entry strikingly
  • With no paved runways, the country was aeronautically deficient.From the entry aeronautically
  • Nevertheless, the comprehensive comparative analysis of pumpkin viromes across various geographic regions by NGS remains deficient.2023 August, Batchimeg Togoobat, Nan Wu, Xifeng Wang, Mengji Cao, Zhongtian Xu, “Viromic approach reveals differences in the composition…. From the entry pumpkin
  • Imbalance of Ch'i (excess YIN or excess YANG, deficient YIN or deficient YANG) causes ill-health.1991, Philip A M Rogers, “Holistic Concepts of Health and Disease”, in Acupuncture in Animals (Proceedings (University of Sydney…. From the entry ch'i
  • Katabolic tendencies, depending upon deficient nutrition (trophesy, physiological disintegration), determine predominant maleness in the progeny.1904, Edward Parker Davis, A Treatise on obstetrics for students and practitioners, page 68. From the entry trophesy
  • Those with subnormal intelligence were considered idiots, moderate mental deficients were imbeciles, and debiles were those with mild mental defects.2023, Mark M. Rich, Invisible Eugenics: How the Medical System and Public Schools Are Killing Your Children, 2nd edition. From the entry debile
  • Being structurally deficient does not necessarily mean that the bridge is unsafe, but it does mean it’s in need of repair.2018 February 2, Mercedes Leguizamon and Saeed Ahmed, “There are more than 54,000 bridges in the US in need of repair, says this study”…. From the entry structurally
  • It could be converted into two shunt products (DMAC 5 and aloesaponarin II 6 ) in the actVI-ORF1-deficient mutant strain.2015 July 11, “Functional Characterization of a Ketoreductase-Encoding Gene med -ORF12 Involved in the Formation of a Stereospecific Pyran…. From the entry aloesaponarin
  • Shafter was also deficient in field artillery, the arm traditionally used to "soften up" defensive positions before an assault.2013, Benjamin R. Beede, The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions, 1898 To 1934, →ISBN. From the entry well-handed
  • In another case an etheromaniac earl committed extravagances which, from a moral point of view, classified him among mental deficients.1998, Louis Lewin, Phantastica: a classic survey on the use and abuse of mind-altering plants, Inner Traditions / Bear & Company, page 169. From the entry etheromaniac
  • The neophilia of thiamine-deficient rats could be a direct consequence of a specific aversion for familiar deficient diet (paleophobia).1967, Paul Rozin, “Specific aversions as a component of specific hungers”, in Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, volume…. From the entry paleophobia
  • The present interest of this type of lines and its nonembryonic origin is the possibility of establishing specific lines of deficient patients for clinical research.2015 August 2, J.-F. Stoltz et al., “Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine: Myth or Reality of the 21th^([sic]) Century”, in Stem Cells…. From the entry nonembryonic
  • Ellis focuses upon the spectrum opposite that of Vollmann: young, wealthy, careless, emotionally deficient Americans (the Tom and Daisy Buchanans of the late twentieth century).2015, Daniel Grassian, Hybrid Fictions: American Literature and Generation X, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, page 27. From the entry Daisy Buchanan
  • In contrast, reductase continued to become membrane-extracted, but not cytosolically dislocated, in cells deficient for AAA-ATPases of the proteasome 19 S regulatory particle.2014 May 24, Lindsey L. Morris et al., “Sequential Actions of the AAA-ATPase Valosin-containing Protein (VCP)/p97 and the Proteasome 19 S…. From the entry cytosolically
  • Cattle and sheep grazing areas deficient in this element develop vitamin B12 deficiency, as the rumen microorganisms are then unable to manufacture the vitamin.2013, David Frape, Equine Nutrition and Feeding, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN. From the entry cyanocobalamin
  • In two-meridian problems, for example Lung deficiency, where the Spleen would also be deficient, tonify LU-9 or LU-7 and SP-3 or SP-5.1983, Kiiko Matsumoto, Stephen Birch, Five Elements and Ten Stems, →ISBN, page 172. From the entry tonify
  • Since the world of becoming, of origins and perishings, is deficient in true Being, it cannot be known in the best sense.1971, William Barrett, Henry David Aiken, Pragmatism and America's philosophical coming of age, page 323. From the entry perishing
  • The other red sweet wines, however, have been unbalanced, very deficient in color, and apt to oxidize or sherrify at an early age.1944, Maynard Andrew Amerine, Albert Julius Winkler, Composition and Quality of Musts and Wines of California Grapes, page 640. From the entry sherrify
  • In the middle ages, our forefathers found themselves deficient in plates and so, for a substitute, an undercrust of bread served as a plate.1919 September, “How Some of Our Popular Dishes Got their Names”, in Gas Logic, volume 26, number 3, page 13. From the entry undercrust
  • Well, Vedanta recognizes no sin, only error, and the greatest error, it says, is to believe that you are a sinner, a wretch deficient in character.2023, Devika Rege, Quarterlife, Dialogue Books (2025), page 153. From the entry Vedanta
  • In pseudolysogeny, the host cell can mutate to an adhesion-impaired or deficient state (depicted by a wavy cell surface), whereby collisions result in a low success rate of infection.2001, John Paul, Marine Microbiology, page 106. From the entry pseudolysogeny
  • This thinking, supported by this array of heroes in bronze, can only further persuade people that whites may be masters of zweckrationalität—technical rationality—but are deficient in wertrationalität—basic human values.1999, James W. Loewen, Lies across America: What our historic sites get wrong, Simon and Schuster, page 449. From the entry zweckrationalität
  • And the word "snoof" has been brought forth (by an analogy with "deaf") to describe someone who is devoid of, or deficient in, the sense of smell.1966, Monroe C. Beardsley, Thinking Straight; Principles of Reasoning for Readers and Writers, Prentice-Hall, page 292. From the entry snoof

Meaning of deficient

  1. adjective Lacking something essential; often construed with in.
  2. adjective Insufficient or inadequate in amount.
  3. adjective Of a number n, Having the sum of divisors σ(n) < 2n, or, equivalently, the sum of proper divisors (or aliquot sum) s(n) < n.

Full definition of deficient

Questions about deficient in a sentence

How do you use deficient in a sentence?
Deficient is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “They were deficient in social skills.”
What is a short sentence with deficient?
“They were deficient in social skills.”
What does deficient mean?
Deficient means lacking something essential; often construed with in.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deficient (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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