How to use scarce in a sentence
40 example sentences · adjective, adverb
Scarce means uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand. Example: “By the end of the 20th century elephants had become scarce even in Africa.”
Examples of scarce by meaning
adjectiveUncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
- By the end of the 20th century elephants had become scarce even in Africa.
- 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
adjectiveScantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.
- The project failed due to the scarce resources in the national market.
adverbScarcely, only just.
- Upon the barred and slitted wall the splotched shadow of the heaven tree shuddered and pulsed monstrously in scarce any wind.1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 122
- Well, it's scarce the replacement then, is it?1969, John Cleese, Monty Python's Flying Circus
More sentences with scarce
- Salmon were becoming scarce in the river until the feds stepped in.From the entry fed
- Even though money is scarce sometimes, Ann stands by her decision to be a full-time mother.From the entry stand by
- Perhaps I should make myself scarce before he finds any more chores to assign me.From the entry make oneself scarce
- Polls are scarce on this subject, so this one flutter of data may be all we have to make our decision.From the entry flutter
- And like everything else that's increasingly scarce, it behooves us to hoard our stash.2025 February 2, Charles Hugh Smith, Begging Bowl '25: I'm Looking for Two Readers Willing to Help Me Buy a New Thrift-Store Shirt. From the entry honesty
- Bitcoin is the first example of a digital good that is scarce and cannot be reproduced infinitely.2018, Saifedean Ammous, The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 177. From the entry digital scarcity
- Fungus comb also serves as food source, especially in adverse climatic conditions or when food is scarce.2018, Omkar, Pests and Their Management, page 928. From the entry fungus comb
- People behave differently when they perceive a thing to be scarce.2017, Rutger Bregman, chapter 3, in Elizabeth Manton, transl., Utopia for Realists, Kindle edition, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 56. From the entry impinge
- The economy in Northern Ireland is flatlining and jobs are scarce.2012, The Guardian, National Trust attempts to block £100m Giant's Causeway golf course. From the entry flatline
- It was a social happening, because sanctioned gathering spots for kids were scarce.2006, William Teten, Very Truly, Tudey: An Austin Anthology, Old Austin Press, →ISBN, page 57. From the entry knothole section
- However appealing Antibes may be to migrant authors, indigenous ones are relatively scarce.2004, Ted Jones, chapter 3, in The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers, London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, published 2007…. From the entry translate
- Along the mainland coast of the SCB, however, haul-out and rookery sites are relatively scarce.2003, Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and San Clemente Island Range Complex, page 3-67. From the entry haul-out
- But economics is the study of the allocation of scarce goods.1999 April 4, Robert Levin, “The Marginalization of Scarcity”, in rednsx.org. From the entry agalmics
- It is a rain forest and mucky underroot place where hard land is scarce.1998, Hannah Rachel Bell, Men's Business, Women's Business. From the entry underroot
- Like most Balti homes, this one has no chimney, since heat would escape and fuel is scarce.1987 October, Galen Rowell, “Baltistan: The 20th Century Comes to Shangri-la”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 536. From the entry balti
- The scarce water of Dune is an exact analog of oil scarcity.1980 July, Frank Herbert, “Dune Genesis”, in Omni, volume 2, number 10, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 74, column 1. From the entry OPEC
- Horse-hide coats are common, but real "honest t' God" fur bennies are very, very scarce.1931, The Tomahawk of Alpha Sigma Phi, volume 28, number 1, page 12. From the entry benny
- Das, who grew up in the eastern state of Odisha, said institutional support for understanding gender identity was already scarce.2026 March 24, Uzmi Athar, Sachin Baghel, “Trans Community Alarmed As India Moves To Curb LGBTQ Rights”, in Barron's. From the entry Odisha
- I admire unvarnished honesty, which is scarce.2025 February 2, Charles Hugh Smith, Begging Bowl '25: I'm Looking for Two Readers Willing to Help Me Buy a New Thrift-Store Shirt. From the entry honesty
- Literature on this topic is scarce, too.2025 August 6, Aleksandr Nesterov, “Dranik and its team”, in Belarus Segodnya, Minsk: Belarus Segodnya Publishing House, →OCLC, archived…. From the entry dranik
- When food was scarce, the children would subsist on a lump of jaggery and one bajra roti each.2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 94. From the entry bajra
- Or maybe public opinion became more racialized because the economic downturn pitted social groups against one another for scarce resources.2016, Michael Tesler, Post-Racial or Most-Racial?: Race and Politics in the Obama Era, page 42. From the entry racialized
- Thus far, detailed studies determining the neurochemical codes of the two subplexuses in the porcine and human colon are scarce.2015 August 1, “Architecture and Chemical Coding of the Inner and Outer Submucous Plexus in the Colon of Piglets”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry subplexuses
- Food was scarce; sometimes they subsisted on bananas.2015, Adam Schatz, “Drawing Blood”, in The New Yorker, F-R Pub. Corp., page 60. From the entry Marge Simpson
- Although crustacean parts are common in king crab stomachs, evidence of cannibalism is scarce in studies of wild feeding.2014, Bradley G. Stevens, King Crabs of the World: Biology and Fisheries Management, →ISBN, page 341. From the entry wild feed
- But movement is scarce here tonight: stragglesome wanderers, looking purposeless and disattached, strolling for the sake of motion.2009, Jonathan Miles, Dear American Airlines. From the entry stragglesome
- Pinedrops and other protocarnivorous species have an advantage over other plants in situations where soil nitrogen is scarce.2007, Carolyn Dodson, William W. Dunmire, Mountain Wildflowers of the Southern Rockies: Revealing Their Natural History, University of New…. From the entry protocarnivorous
- So we can be certain that, over time, more and more basic goods will become less and less scarce.1999 April 4, Robert Levin, “The Marginalization of Scarcity”, in rednsx.org. From the entry agalmics
- Software for those computers was even scarcer.1994, COMPUTE!. From the entry type-in
- Compact "pizza box" personal computers with integrated components are more desirable since they occupy less precious and scarce desktop real estate.1991 March 12, William F. Zachmann, “A Case of Computer Design”, in PC Magazine. From the entry pizza box
- Nonstarred titles throughout the bibliography mark the many Gothic works that are relatively scarce or difficult to obtain today.1981, Marshall B. Tymn, Horror literature: a core collection and reference guide. From the entry nonstarred
- I said that inkballs on oak trees were scarce.1975, Jesse Stuart, My world, page 8. From the entry pokeberry
- Hairpins, also mighty useful as cherry-pitters, are growing scarce.1975, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Joy of Cooking, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., published 1980…. From the entry cherry-pitter
- If catlore is scarce in the above genres, it develops prominence in the realm of superstition and belief.1973, Arkansas State University, Mid-South folklore: Volumes 1-5. From the entry catlore
- Another difficulty which causes literature in braille to remain scarce is the cumbersomeness of the process of producing braille books.1963, S. C. Ashcroft, Freda Henderson, Programmed Instruction in Braille, Stanwix House, →ISBN, page 6. From the entry braille
Meaning of scarce
- adjective Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
- adjective Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.
- adverb Scarcely, only just.
Questions about scarce in a sentence
- How do you use scarce in a sentence?
- Scarce is used as an adjective and adverb. For example: “By the end of the 20th century elephants had become scarce even in Africa.”
- What is a short sentence with scarce?
- “I admire unvarnished honesty, which is scarce.”
- What does scarce mean?
- Scarce means uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scarce (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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Cite this page: “How to use scarce in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/scarce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
