Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Smallness of number; fewness.
- n. Scarcity; dearth: a paucity of natural resources.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Smallness of number; fewness.
- n. Smallness of quantity; scantiness.
Wiktionary
- n. Fewness in number; too few.
- n. A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Fewness; smallness of number; scarcity; rarity.
- n. Smallness of quantity; exiguity; insufficiency.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an insufficient quantity or number
Etymologies
- From Latin paucitas ("a small number, fewness, scarcity"), from paucus ("few, little"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English paucite, from Old French, from Latin paucitās, from paucus, few. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Flash works when time is in paucity, and when readers need a tiny piece of wonderful writing to make them smile.”
““The Progressive Era,” concluded Kolko, “was characterized by a paucity of alternatives to the status quo, a vacuum that permitted political capitalism to direct the growth of individualism in America, to shape its politics, to determine the ground rules for American civilization in the twentieth century, and to set the stage for what was to follow.””
“Some writers would not use the word paucity in this place without first knowing the meaning of it, but I am not that way.”
“The Blur frontman said he would not be taking part in Live 8 and called the paucity of African and black artists on the bill an “oversight” on the part of the organizers.”
“Impoverishment refers to a paucity of species in certain places; disharmony refers to unequal representation of species, or groups of species, in different places.”
“Recalling the paucity of firearms among the people on the boat he felt that a single weapon could be ill spared.”
“He came up with that conclusion after receiving a "paucity" of answers from Genachowski on the move.”
The Washington Post: Rep. Dingell tells FCC to drop move for broadband regulations
“MCN: You said at the Cable Show that you believed cable operators were not going to discriminate in their broadband business and you cited the 'paucity' of violations.”
“There are a lot of managers in the Premier League that would love to suffer with such "paucity" of resources.”
“Frank Field, an arch-critic of Mr Brown, attacked the "paucity" of the Government's programme, saying: "Week after week MPs have been turning up but with almost no serious work to do.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paucity’.
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 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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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 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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P
letters starting with p
predicament, presumptuous, predilection, plausible, preeminent, plaintive, paragon, partisan, pathological, paucity, pedantic, penchant and 28 more...
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GRE
GRE Vocabs
alacrity, celerity, haste, penitent, prosaic, veracity, paucity, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious and 13 more...
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06-13 GRE list
churlish, unswear, abnegate, abjure, state, indemnification, adumbrated, reny, abash, recondite, rescission, esoteric and 258 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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My GRE Vocab
moniker, sobriquet, prerogative, aberration, aberrant, nuance, notorious, infamous, renown, allude, refer, content and 109 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 491 more...
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GRE Study
Collection of GRE words
dogged, acumen, destitution, tenacious, paucity, alacrity, veracity, prosaic, malevolent, contrite, laconic, pugnacious and 43 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for paucity.
lweber5@scf.edu Dictionary.com, A paucity of useful answers to the problem of traffic congestion at rush hour Nov 5, 2010
mn the paucity and heterogeneity of the available clinical research in some specific areas precluded this approach and favoured a narrative survey. Jan 13, 2010
vermontster I tell my students -- "Want in? Learn to drop 'a paucity of research in X.' You'll sound really impressive." (Dearth is last year - or last decade. Or something.) Jun 28, 2008