insufficiency
noun
Simple meaning
Lack of an adequate quantity or number.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnsuhfishuhnseeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnsəˈfɪʃənsi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Lack of an adequate quantity or number
The lack of sufficiency: a shortage, the state of having or being not enough (of something).
A lack of competence
“Pointed out the insufficiencies in my report.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Lack of an adequate quantity or number
Used this way, insufficiency is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Inadequate blood flow to the heart muscles.
Inadequate blood flow to the heart muscles.
Insufficient excretion of wastes by the kidneys.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: lack of an adequate quantity or number
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.