deficient
lacking some element or characteristic; defective: deficient in taste.
insufficient; inadequate: deficient knowledge.
a person who is deficient, especially one who is mentally defective.
Origin of deficient
1Other words from deficient
- de·fi·cient·ly, adverb
- non·de·fi·cient, adjective
- non·de·fi·cient·ly, adverb
- pre·de·fi·cient, adjective
- pre·de·fi·cient·ly, adverb
- un·de·fi·cient, adjective
- un·de·fi·cient·ly, adverb
Words Nearby deficient
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use deficient in a sentence
It’s a problem compounded by the Marshals Service’s deficient coronavirus tracking and testing.
U.S. Marshals Service’s lax covid-19 oversight of some inmates reflects a larger problem | Joe Davidson | February 12, 2021 | Washington PostSimilarly, a peer-reviewed observational study in Italy looking back at a small group of patients who were hospitalized with acute respiratory failure due to covid-19 found that 81 percent were vitamin D deficient.
Vitamin D sales are up. But experts still don’t know whether it can prevent or treat covid. | Allyson Chiu | January 11, 2021 | Washington PostHowever mistletoes get by with their deficient mitochondria, the big unanswered question is why these plants did away with something so seemingly useful.
Schwarber and Rosario could be viewed as deficient in the field.
Nationals keep surveying a deepened corner outfield market | Jesse Dougherty | December 11, 2020 | Washington PostGiven what’s already known, zinc could possibly decrease the duration of infection but not the severity of symptoms, she said, particularly among people who are deficient.
Can supplements really help fight COVID-19? Here’s what we know and don’t know | Laura Beil | October 16, 2020 | Science News
Spring is starting to arrive, and we plan to soak up as much sun as our vitamin-D-deficient bodies can handle.
New York City’s Best New Hotspots This Spring | Sara Sayed, Valeriya Safronova | April 2, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe same goes for the elliptical machine hunger strike, which also comes off as tonally deficient, to say the least.
‘Camp X-Ray,’ A Kristen Stewart-Starring Guantanamo Bay Film, Premieres at Sundance | Marlow Stern | January 18, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTVitamin D3—Most of you reading this are probably vitamin D deficient if you wear clothes and work indoors.
These Are The 15 Supplements to Keep In Your Medicine Cabinet | Ari Meisel | December 28, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThe U.S. got slaughtered: 57 percent of our kids were “totally deficient” compared to just 8.3 percent of the Europeans.
One in nine is rated structurally deficient, meaning major repairs or replacement are needed—yesterday.
Pay to Fix America’s Crumbling Infrastructure Now, or Pay More Later | David Cay Johnston | May 25, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST(b) Diseases of the stomach associated with deficient hydrochloric acid, as chronic gastritis and gastric cancer.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddNapoleon himself arrived at Wrzburg on October 2nd, and found his army concentrated, but deficient of supplies.
Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-PattisonRemnants of food from previous meals indicate deficient gastric motility.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddExcess of any of these structures may result from excessive ingestion or deficient intestinal digestion.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddPutty-colored or "acholic" stools occur when bile is deficient, either from obstruction to outflow or from deficient secretion.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
British Dictionary definitions for deficient
/ (dɪˈfɪʃənt) /
lacking some essential; incomplete; defective
inadequate in quantity or supply; insufficient
Origin of deficient
1Derived forms of deficient
- deficiently, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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