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Where does the word dearth come from?
Dearth has, in one form or another, been used to refer to scarcity since at least the 13th century, when it often referred specifically to the plague of famine (as in “a time of dearth”), whether brought on by an insidious crop disease or by invaders. The word traces back to the Old English adjective dēore, meaning “dear” (dēore is also the ancestor of dear, which also once meant “scarce,” though that sense is now obsolete). That notion of dearness or importance endures in dearth, which implies the absence or scarcity of not just any old thing, but of something one wants or needs. A dearth of mauls, for example, would be the bane of a woodcutter’s existence.
Examples of dearth in a Sentence
Julie Bosman, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2006
… Earnhardt has recently hinted that a company-wide dearth of talent is the core reason his Chevy simply isn't as fast in 2005 as it's been in the past.
—Lars Anderson, Sports Illustrated, 11 Apr. 2006
AirNet, which hauls bank checks and other time-critical freight, used to require that its pilots have at least 1,200 hours of flight experience. Then, faced with a dearth of experienced applicants, it dropped the requirement to 500 hours. Now, it has no minimum.
—Scott McCartney, Wall Street Journal, 10 Aug. 2000
there was a dearth of usable firewood at the campsite
the dearth of salesclerks at the shoe store annoyed us
Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 30 Nov. 2025
Featuring the voices of stars like Shakira, Quinta Brunson, and Macaulay Culkin, Zootopia 2 likely performed so exceedingly well due to the relative recent dearth of family films on the release calendar.
—Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 30 Nov. 2025
Indeed, housing isn’t unaffordable because of a dearth of long-term financing options but because of a fundamental mismatch between supply and demand.
—E.j. Antoni, Mercury News, 28 Nov. 2025
The dearth of offense led the Wild to do some line rearranging, with Kaprizov getting some extra shifts in hopes of testing the Chicago goalie more often.
—Jess Myers, Twin Cities, 27 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dearth
Cite this Entry
“Dearth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dearth. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.
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