lack

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.

Verb

1. (stative, transitive) To be without, not to have, to need, to require.
2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be in want.
4. (obsolete) To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
5. To be off one's guard.

Opposite of

glut, surplus, plethora

Synonyms

shortage

deficiency

want

absence

scarcity

need

shortcoming

dearth

miss

deficit

defect

insufficiency

short of

flaw

poverty

be short of

privation

inadequacy

be missing

be short

shortfall

not have

gap

be absent

require

vacancy

without

scantiness

deprivation

failure

lack of

fail

be deficient

be in need of

be lacking

shortness

indigence

destitution

absent

I don’t have

requirement

paucity

omission

missing

scantness

few

🤏

fault

famine

failing

default

Translations

manquer

manque

Mangel

mancare

mancanza

falta

fehlen

faltar

gebrek

carencia

carecer

entbehren

ontberen

missen

Pronounced as (IPA)

/læk/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: lack

Inherited from Old English: *læc

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Lak

Cognate with Middle Low German: lack

Cognate with Dutch: lak

Cognate with Icelandic: lakur

Cognate with Middle Dutch: laken

Inherited from Middle English: lacken

Inherited from Old English: læccian

Cognate with Old Frisian: lakia

Cognate with Middle Low German: lacken

Cognate with Dutch: laken

In summary

From Middle English lack, lakke, lak, from Old English *læc (“deficiency, lack, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak, from Proto-Germanic *laką, *lakaz (“slackness”), from Proto-Germanic *lakaz (“limp, slack, loose, low”), related to *lak(k)ōną (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Lak (“lack”), Middle Low German lack, lak (“lack”), Dutch lak (“lack, deficiency, calumny”), Icelandic lakur (“lacking”). Related also to Middle Dutch laken (“to blame, lack”).
Eclipsed non-native Middle English carence (“absence, lack”), from Old French carence.

Sentences

The lack of more than two shutter speeds was not a problem .