scarcity

scarcity
    n 1: a small and inadequate amount [syn: {scarcity},
         {scarceness}] [ant: {abundance}, {copiousness},
         {teemingness}]
    

Scarceness \Scarce"ness\, Scarcity \Scar"ci*ty\, n.
   The quality or condition of being scarce; smallness of
   quantity in proportion to the wants or demands; deficiency;
   lack of plenty; short supply; penury; as, a scarcity of
   grain; a great scarcity of beauties. --Chaucer.
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         A scarcity of snow would raise a mutiny at Naples.
                                                  --Addison.
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         Praise . . . owes its value to its scarcity. --Rambler.
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         The value of an advantage is enhanced by its
         scarceness.                              --Collier.
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   Syn: Deficiency; lack; want; penury; dearth; rareness;
        rarity; infrequency.
        [1913 Webster]
    

45 Moby Thesaurus words for "scarcity":
      absence, chinchiness, chintziness, dearth, deficiency, exiguity,
      fewness, inadequacy, inadequateness, infrequence, infrequency,
      insufficiency, lack, meagerness, miserliness, need, niggardliness,
      occasionalness, paucity, poverty, rareness, rarity, restrictedness,
      scant, scant sufficiency, scantiness, scarceness, scrimpiness,
      seldomness, shortage, skimpiness, slowness, smallness, sparseness,
      sparsity, stinginess, stringency, thinness, tightness,
      uncommonness, underage, unfrequentness, uniqueness, unusualness,
      want