Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lacking an essential quality or element.
  • adjective Inadequate in amount or degree; insufficient.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lacking; wanting; incomplete.
  • Defective; imperfect; inadequate: as, deficient strength.
  • Not having a full or adequate supply: as, the country is deficient in the means of carrying on war.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Wanting, to make up completeness; wanting, as regards a requirement; not sufficient; inadequate; defective; imperfect; incomplete; lacking
  • adjective (Arith.) See under Abundant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lacking something essential; often construed with in.
  • adjective Insufficient or inadequate in amount.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement
  • adjective falling short of some prescribed norm
  • adjective inadequate in amount or degree

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin dēficiēns, dēficient-, present participle of dēficere, to fail, be wanting; see defect.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin deficiens, present participle of deficere ("to lack, fail, be wanting"); see defect.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word deficient.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • deFicIenT

    May 16, 2008