Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A scarce supply; a lack: "the dearth of uncensored, firsthand information about the war” ( Richard Zoglin).
- n. Shortage of food; famine.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Dearness; costliness; high price.
- n. A condition of dearness or costliness from scarcity; hence, failure of production or supply; famine from failure or loss of crops.
- n. Absence; lack; barrenness; poverty: as, a dearth of love; a dearth of honest men.
- n. Synonyms Famine, etc. See scarcity.
- To cause a dearth or scarcity in; hence, to raise the price of.
Wiktionary
- n. this sense?) A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
- n. by extension Scarcity; a lack or short supply.
- n. obsolete Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an acute insufficiency
- n. an insufficient quantity or number
Etymologies
- First attested at least as early as the late 1400s, and appearing in Tyndale's Pentateuch (1530) as well as the Coverdale Bible (1535). From Middle English derþe, probably from Old English *dīerþ, *dīerþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō (“costliness, preciousness, honour”), corresponding to dear + -th. Cognate with West Frisian djoerte ("love, dearness, value, worth"), Dutch duurte ("dearness; scarcity, dearth"), Icelandic dýrð ("honour, glory"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English derthe, from Old English *dēorthu, costliness, from dēore, costly; see dear1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Amid a certain dearth of materials of a private kind, I do congratulate myself on having been able to use the packet of letters docketed by Sir Harry, "John Bell's and Charlie Beckwith's Letters.”
The Autobiography of Liuetenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej, G. C. B.
“If folk be scarce as food in dearth ne’er let three lots come near ye:”
“NEW YORK — Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy called the dearth of minority head coaches in major college football "disgraceful.”
“So far, there has been what one might call a dearth of commissions.”
“Dungy called the dearth of minority head coaches in major college football "disgraceful.”
Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7
“Dungy calls dearth of minority head coaches in major college football 'disgraceful”
Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7
“And, um, folks do know what "dearth" means, right?”
“Yeah, to the anonymous who mentioned the "dearth" leaving ..... please utilize Miriam Webster.”
“The "dearth" of literature in indigenous African languages also posed a huge challenge, said Jordan.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dearth’.
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Old words
Old words: modern English words that are old according to criteria that are still vague: Either words common to several old languages or words substantially similar in old English. Please add to or...
mother, father, bark, spit, old, fire, this, that, black, thou, to give, hand and 259 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 122 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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Making Ends Meet
Idea (and title) from NYT crossword puzzle theme.
computerminal, losteam, Englisheepdog, limitedition, primeridian, casensitive, sciencenter, personalitype, guardiangel, Placidomingo, tradeficit, horsense and 44 more...
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utopia
Words used in the book utopia by sir thomas more
credence, proverb, provost, dissimulation, espy, neologism, vouchsafe, liberality, weal, inquisitive, assentation, verily and 21 more...
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It's an art
applecart, arterial, arthology, artesian, arthropod, arthrostraca, artifex, artificial, articulate, articling, artichoke, blue darter and 51 more...
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Neuro-logical ??
The discovering of neuro and phago-cyte nano-engineered biology...
opsoclonus, opsomania, speciefic, opsonin, reveal, parsec, stereopsis, scarious, ablative absolute, presage, requisitory, nuance and 62 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dearth.

fbharjo dear+earth Jul 28, 2012
ofravens I thought this word meant its complete opposite until about two weeks ago. I'm kind of embarrassed. Oct 6, 2008
Prolagus There's no dearth of kindness
In the world of ours;
Only in our blindness
We gather thorns for flowers.
(Gerald Massey) Mar 23, 2008