different between paucity vs meagreness

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

English

Alternative forms

• meagerness (US)

Etymology

meagre +? -ness

Noun

meagreness (countable and uncountable, plural meagrenesses)

1. (Britain) The state of being meagre.

Anagrams

• meagerness