as in shortages
a falling short of an essential or desirable amount or number
the scarcity of good restaurants around here is surprising
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Recent Examples of scarcities
This is because climate change and ecological collapse are very likely to cause political fragmentation that nullifies legal and cultural precedents like abolition, and bring about agrarian and manufacturing crises and scarcities in which people are forced into labor.
—
Literary Hub, 12 Dec. 2025
In addition to political persecution, returning Venezuelans would reenter a country teetering on collapse—maligned by hyperinflation, soaring unemployment, rampant crime, frequent power outages, water shortages and chronic scarcities of food and medicine.
—Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scarcities
Noun
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At the same time, a currency collapsing under international sanctions, water shortages and recurring power outages have sharpened a sense of crisis across the country.—
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At El Tejaban Mexican Grill in Richfield, sales have dropped by as much as 50%, forcing reduced hours and staffing shortages.—
Noun
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So Vegas has to hope that their forward depth is strong enough to balance out where their star power lacks, relative to other contenders.—
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This absence — of God, of love, of plain community spirit — is a metaphor for the whole parish, where everyone is defined by their own lacks and deficiencies, the weaknesses that cause Wicks to despise them and vow to bring down them all.—
Cite this Entry
“Scarcities.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scarcities. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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