lack

Meaning

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

be short of

be missing

be absent

be short

not have

require

lack of

be deficient

be lacking

destitution

be without

be in need of

I don’t have

I lack

run out of

weak point

be deficient in

be in need

be out of

be wanting

not to have

run short of

be insufficient

be inadequate

be defective

be devoid of

be incomplete

be meager

be scanty

shortage of food

chisel in

derth

fail in

shortage of water

default of

have run out of

be away

do not have

negative quantity

non-availability

not exist

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/læk/

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.

Cognate with Dutch

lak

Cognate with Dutch

laken

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