Synonyms of famine

famine

noun

ˈfa-mən 

as in shortage

a falling short of an essential or desirable amount or number

there's a famine of good general practitioners in many rural areas

Synonyms & Similar Words

• shortage
• lack
• drought
• deficiency
• poverty
• scarcity
• deficit
• insufficiency
• absence
• paucity
• dearth
• inadequacy
• crunch
• undersupply
• failure
• scantiness
• lacuna
• pinch
• scarceness
• inadequateness
• omission
• want
• privation
• necessity
• meagerness
• poorness
• skimpiness
• need

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• abundance
• wealth
• sufficiency
• plenty
• amplitude
• opulence
• adequacy
• plenitude
• surplus
• excess
• oversupply
• overabundance
• surfeit
• bountifulness
• copiousness

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of famine

The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed many parts of Sudan into famine. — Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2026

When the world experienced what was likely one of the strongest El Niño events in the historical record in the late 1870s, the climate pattern coincided with widespread drought, crop failures and a global famine that killed millions. — Brandi D. Addison, USA Today, 7 July 2026

Jackson Merrill continued a season of feast or famine by going 2-for-4 last night. — Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 July 2026

It is not meant to recall Stalin’s seizure of farms, which resulted in mass famine, or Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which also resulted in mass famine. — Idrees Kahloon, The Atlantic, 6 July 2026