Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality or condition of being deficient; incompleteness or inadequacy.
- n. A lack or shortage, especially of something essential to health; an insufficiency: a nutritional deficiency.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of being deficient; a lack or failing; a falling short; incompleteness, as of intelligence, attainments, or performance.
- n. That in which a person or thing is deficient; an imperfection.
- n. Lack of the necessary quantity, number, etc.; inadequacy; insufficiency: as, a deficiency of troops; a deficiency of blood.
- n. Absence; loss.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable Inadequacy or incompleteness.
- n. countable An insufficiency, especially of something essential to health.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect.
WordNet 3.0
- n. lack of an adequate quantity or number
- n. the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable
Etymologies
- deficit + -ency (Wiktionary)
Examples
“It has been demonstrated that a blood protein deficiency is the cause of this inherited illness.”
“Protein deficiency is common in children (43% of children five years of age or less) resulting not only in a high mortality rate but irreversible mental retardation and restricted body development in survivors.”
“The best vitamin E form for preventing or reversing this deficiency is the liquid form: tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS), because the body absorbs it more readily.”
“Although my asymmetric hearing deficiency is most likely a congenital problem — that was nevertheless almost undetectable until my early 20s — the doctor wants to do one more test to rule out a benign tumor.”
“Folic acid deficiency is a leading cause of spina bifida and other neural tube defects in newborns, and can be prevented by taking folic acid supplementation during pregnancy.”
“Quite likely the single biggest piece of good news about G6PD deficiency is that it is widely understood to confer protection against malaria, in particular the most deadly form of that disease.”
The Huffington Post: Randall Amster: The Most Common Disease You've Never Heard Of
“Despite worldwide incidence and a disparate impact on African-American communities, this peer-reviewed article cogently observed that "newborn screening for G6PD deficiency is not performed routinely in the United States.”
The Huffington Post: Randall Amster: The Most Common Disease You've Never Heard Of
“Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency: a hereditary disease that can cause hepatitis and liver failure.”
“The five diseases studied by the CLiC team are: Alagille Syndrome (AGS), Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (a-1AT), Bile acid synthesis and metabolism defects, Mitochondrial hepatopathies, and Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC).”
“(This deficiency is not completely protective against drinking, however, particularly if there is social pressure and high exposure to alcohol, such as among college fraternity members.) * Some people with alcoholism may have an inherited dysfunction in the transmission of serotonin.”
Gladwell: cultural norms affect drinking! | Dr Vino's wine blog
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deficiency’.
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JURI - patent law
admissible, entry, allowable, fact, lapse, term, title, notes, abstract, absolute grounds ..., acquisition of th..., action for revoca... and 338 more...
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CONT - general terms
additionality, audit trail, accounting standards, auditing standards, general audit obj..., a posteriori audit, a priori audit, above board, acceptable error ..., access rights, accountability, accountable entities and 1283 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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monica's list
just words i think are pretty.
luminous, iridescent, crestfallen, wanderlust, autumn, autumnal, spark, candescence, exaltations, merry, empathy, tainted and 96 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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State Spelling Bee 2011
Words from the California State Spelling Bee in 2011, from which I got fourth place.
cymbidium, jurisprudence, entourage, cauterize, dressage, roux, pomaceous, malfeasance, jactitation, eclogue, caryotid, obloquy and 126 more...
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thricedotted's Words
schadenfreude, vanquish, calumny, obsequious, rhapsody, expostulate, promontory, bordello, quintessence, catharsis, recapitulation, myriad and 937 more...
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me + student loans =
You know that feeling when you open your wallet and all you can find inside are ATM receipts?
When being a squatter is the least of your worries and that thing called dignity is shove...destitution, beggary, impecuniosity, indigence, mendicancy, poor, impoverishment, pauperism, pennilessness, penuriousness, penury, poverty and 168 more...
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PSY301
bluntly, disenchanted, disenchant, decipher, schizophrenia, mitigate, positron, tomography, saltatory, refractory, deficiency
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Dearth
Words meaning dearth.
deficiency, scarcity, insufficiency, want, insufficience, paucity
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A lack
Nouns meaning a lack
want, fault, privativeness, void, destitution, deficiency, inopia, omission, absence
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Daily Words
Words that come up in daily conversation or from media sources
ineffable, conspicuous, failsafe, inclement, symmetrical, bipartisan, pack ice, deficiency, glasnost, repercussion
Tweets
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