Paucity - Definitions from Dictionary.com

7 results for: Paucity

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English - Cite This Source - Share This

Main Entry:	paucity
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	an insufficiency; dearth
Etymology:	Latin paucus 'little'

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)
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Paucity

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

pau·ci·ty

Audio Help [paw-si-tee] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness: a country with a paucity of resources.

2.	smallness or insufficiency of number; fewness.

[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME paucite < L paucitās fewness, deriv. of paucus few; see -ity

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

pau·ci·ty Audio Help (pô'sĭ-tē) Pronunciation Key
n.

Smallness of number; fewness.
Scarcity; dearth: a paucity of natural resources.

[Middle English paucite, from Old French, from Latin paucitās, from paucus, few; see pau-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
paucity

c.1425, from O.Fr. paucité (14c.), from L. paucitatem (nom. paucitas) "fewness, scarcity," from paucus "few, little," from PIE base *pau- "few, little" (cf. L. paullus "little," parvus "little, small," pauper "poor;" O.E. feawe "few," fola "young horse;" O.N. fylja "young female horse").

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

paucity
noun
an insufficient quantity or number [syn: dearth]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Paucity

Few\ (f[=u]), a. [Compar. Fewer; superl. Fewest.] [OE. fewe, feawe, AS. fe['a], pl. fe['a]we; akin to OS. f[=a]h, OHG. f[=o] fao, Icel. f[=a]r, Sw. f[*a], pl., Dan. faa, pl., Goth. faus, L. paucus, cf. Gr. pay^ros. Cf. Paucity.] Not many; small, limited, or confined in number; -- indicating a small portion of units or individuals constituing a whole; often, by ellipsis of a noun, a few people. "Are not my days few?" --Job x. 20.

Few know and fewer care. --Proverb.

Note: Few is often used partitively; as, few of them.

A few, a small number.

In few, in a few words; briefly. --Shak.

No few, not few; more than a few; many. --Cowper.

The few, the minority; -- opposed to the many or the majority.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This

paucity

paucity was Word of the Day on September 13, 1999.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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