from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Deficiency \De*fi"cien*cy\, n.; pl. {Deficiencies}. [See
{Deficient}.]
The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure;
imperfection; shortcoming; defect. "A deficiency of blood."
--Arbuthnot.
[1913 Webster]
[Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his
deficiencies made him the ridicule of his
contemporaries. --Buckle.
[1913 Webster]
{Deficiency of a curve} (Geom.), the amount by which the
number of double points on a curve is short of the maximum
for curves of the same degree.
[1913 Webster]