dearth

[durth] /dɜrθ/

noun

an inadequate supply; scarcity; lack:

There is a dearth of good engineers.

scarcity and dearness of food; famine.

Origin

1200-50; Middle English derthe. See dear¹, -th¹

Can be confused

dearth, plethora.

dearth, death.

Synonyms

1. shortage, want, paucity, insufficiency.

Antonyms

1. abundance, plenty, sufficiency; surplus.

Examples from the web for dearth

This dearth of valid arguments is why those in the "immigration enforcement" camp are often accused of xenophobia.
Despite the apparent dearth of titles, hitting the target audience has not always proven to be easy in this niche market.
The problem isn't a dearth of fish, it's an abundance of people.
Given the author's creativity and output, there is no dearth of material.
Ordinarily, a dearth of literary quality combined with an inept prose style would be a sure-fire formula for commercial success.
There's no dearth of material and the contributors assess their subject from every imaginable angle.
Faults in performance do not necessarily signify a dearth of skills or abilities, social scientists have found.
Manhattan has a dearth of public swimming pools, though there are quite a few privately owned ones.
There is no dearth of action and physical suspense here, rendered in terse, heart-stopping prose.
Such a dearth of achievement leaves a biographer at a considerable disadvantage.

British Dictionary definitions for dearth

dearth

/dɜːθ/

noun

an inadequate amount, esp of food; scarcity

Word Origin

C13: derthe, from dērdear

Word Origin and History for dearth

mid-13c., derthe "scarcity" (originally used of famines, when food was costly because scarce; extended to other situations of scarcity from early 14c.), abstract noun formed from root of Old English deore "precious, costly" (see dear) + abstract noun suffix -th (2). Common Germanic formation, though not always with the same sense (cf. Old Saxon diurtha "splendor, glory, love," Middle Dutch dierte, Dutch duurte, Old High German tiurida "glory").

dearth in the Bible

a scarcity of provisions (1 Kings 17). There were frequent dearths in Palestine. In the days of Abram there was a "famine in the land" (Gen. 12:10), so also in the days of Jacob (47:4, 13). We read also of dearths in the time of the judges (Ruth 1:1), and of the kings (2 Sam. 21:1; 1 Kings 18:2; 2 Kings 4:38; 8:1). In New Testament times there was an extensive famine in Palestine (Acts 11:28) in the fourth year of the reign of the emperor Claudius (A.D. 44 and 45).