different between deficiency vs paucity

English

Etymology

From deficit +? -ency. Compare Latin d?ficientia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: d?f??sh?ns?, IPA^(key): /d??f???nsi/

Noun

deficiency (countable and uncountable, plural deficiencies)

1. (uncountable) Inadequacy or incompleteness.
2. (countable) An insufficiency, especially of something essential to health.
3. (geometry) The amount by which the number of double points on a curve is short of the maximum for curves of the same degree.
4. (geometry) The codimension of a linear system in the corresponding complete linear system.

Antonyms

• sufficiency
• excess

Translations

Further reading

• deficiency on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From Middle French paucité, from Old French, from Latin paucit?s (“a small number, fewness, scarcity”), from paucus (“few, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh?w-, *ph?w- (“few, small”) (English few).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?s?ti/, /?p?s?ti/

Noun

paucity (countable and uncountable, plural paucities)

1. Fewness in number; too few.
2. A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.
   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 407]:

     Genteel America was handicapped by meagerness of soul, thinness of temper, paucity of talent.

Synonyms

• (fewness in number): See Thesaurus:fewness
• (smallness in size or amount): dearth, scantiness, scarcity; see also Thesaurus:lack

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• paucity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• paucity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• paucity at OneLook Dictionary Search