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  1. dearth love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A scarce supply; a lack: "the dearth of uncensored, firsthand information about the war” ( Richard Zoglin).
  2. n. Shortage of food; famine.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Dearness; costliness; high price.
  2. n. A condition of dearness or costliness from scarcity; hence, failure of production or supply; famine from failure or loss of crops.
  3. n. Absence; lack; barrenness; poverty: as, a dearth of love; a dearth of honest men.
  4. n. Synonyms Famine, etc. See scarcity.
  5. To cause a dearth or scarcity in; hence, to raise the price of.

Wiktionary

  1. n. this sense?) A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
  2. n. by extension Scarcity; a lack or short supply.
  3. n. obsolete Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an acute insufficiency
  2. n. an insufficient quantity or number

Etymologies

  1. 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)
  2. Middle English derthe, from Old English *dēorthu, costliness, from dēore, costly; see dear1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. want
  1. lack
  1. famine
  1. deficiency
  1. shortage
  1. scarcity
  1. paucity

hypernyms (5)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. deficiency
  1. lack
  1. want
  1. scarcity
  1. scarceness

same context (24)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. scarcity
  2. paucity
  3. shortage
  4. malnutrition
  1. privation
  2. destitution
  3. drought
  4. pestilence
  1. barrenness
  2. famine
  3. insufficiency
  4. abundance
  1. cheapness
  2. deficiency
  3. lack
  4. disadvantage
  1. unproductiveness
  2. sterility
  3. desolation
  4. infertility
  1. wretchedness
  2. blight
  3. importation
  4. rarity

rhymes (14)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Earth
  2. Perth
  1. Wentworth
  2. berth
  1. birth
  2. earth
  1. firth
  2. furth
  1. girth
  2. mirth
  1. rebirth
  2. unearth
  1. worth
  2. wurth

reverse dictionary (12)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. scarcity
  2. derth
  1. dearth
  2. paucity
  1. drought
  2. famine
  1. penury
  2. -th
  1. dear
  2. poverty
  1. scarceness
  2. want

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. behead
  1. SATWOTD

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Lists

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Comments

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  • 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

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‘dearth’ has been looked up 8968 times, loved by 12 people, added to 138 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.