as in shortage
a falling short of an essential or desirable amount or number
a paucity of useful answers to the problem of traffic congestion at rush hour
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Recent Examples of paucity
Unusually, there appears to be a paucity of internal candidates, particularly after the departure of Moore, and the shock resignation of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness.
—
Max Goldbart, Deadline, 9 Jan. 2026
Both teams faced the same challenge in their quest to understand how cats came to sit on mats—namely, a paucity of archaeologic evidence through time.
—Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 27 Nov. 2025
What connects those three results is the notion that at the season's halfway mark, there appears to be a paucity of pigskin dominance across a league where teams toggle between looking superb and sliding, varying on the week.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 3 Nov. 2025
But the indictments are startling for their paucity compared with the charges described in Patel’s boasts.
—Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 26 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for paucity
Max Goldbart, Deadline, 9 Jan. 2026
Both teams faced the same challenge in their quest to understand how cats came to sit on mats—namely, a paucity of archaeologic evidence through time.
—Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 27 Nov. 2025
What connects those three results is the notion that at the season's halfway mark, there appears to be a paucity of pigskin dominance across a league where teams toggle between looking superb and sliding, varying on the week.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 3 Nov. 2025
But the indictments are startling for their paucity compared with the charges described in Patel’s boasts.
—Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 26 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for paucity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for paucity
Noun
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Progress in robotics Agility’s humanoid robot, Digit, has already entered the market, demonstrating its readiness to tackle the labor shortage in factories and warehouses.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Mar. 2026
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Fuel prices in Asia have surged in recent days as processors reduce activity rates due to a shortage of crude, while state-of-the-art refineries in the Middle East cut production as storage runs out.—
Nicholas Lua,
Bloomberg,
9 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Its only post office is in danger of closing due to lack of funding, and fliers are posted up on lamp posts asking for financial support from the community.—
Xuan Juliana Wang,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Mar. 2026
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Lakewood police were heavily criticized for their handling of the investigation into Gratton’s death, including for using her deadname and for an overall lack of transparency about the investigation.—
The Denver Post,
Denver Post,
12 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Paucity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/paucity. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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