scarce
Americanadjective
-
scarcer,
comparative
-
scarcest
superlative
-
insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant.
Meat and butter were scarce during the war.
- Synonyms:
- deficient
- Antonyms:
- abundant
-
seldom met with; rare.
a scarce book.
- Synonyms:
- infrequent, uncommon
adverb
idioms
adjective
-
rarely encountered
-
insufficient to meet the demand
-
informal to go away, esp suddenly
adverb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of scarce
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English scars, from Old North French (e)scars, from Vulgar Latin excarpsus (unrecorded) “plucked out,” from Latin excerptus; see excerpt
Explanation
If something is scarce, there isn't much of it around. Crops are scarce after a long drought, or you might find babysitters scarce if your kids are a nightmare to watch. Scarce, meaning “restricted in quantity,” can oddly be traced back to the same Latin word that spawned the word "excerpt." Use the word scarce when you want to say that something is hard to find or practically missing. When you know you’re about to be asked to do something unpleasant, like wash the dishes or take out the trash, go ahead and “make yourself scarce,” which means to be elusive or get out of there fast.
Vocabulary lists containing scarce
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What has changed is the economics: A doctor’s time is scarce and expensive, and an AI’s is nearly free.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Now, however, climate change has turned water into a scarce resource, requiring a shift in thinking, Schneider argued.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
Rosenblatt Securities analyst John McPeake wrote that with artificial-intelligence computing power being so scarce, he expected that CoreWeave would be able to capitalize.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Tehran is rationing scarce goods, limiting access to foreign currency, slashing investment and shifting more of the burden onto households while preserving strategic imports and the essential machinery of the state, analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
No matter how hard Mom and Wilfred were willing to work, jobs were scarce, too.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
Drastic restrictions on cross-country travel took effect Thursday in cash-strapped Cuba, with spaces on ever scarcer trains and buses now reserved for the sick, people traveling for funerals and other emergencies.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
The right response is more production and more productivity growth, not scarcer credit.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 6, 2026
Jobs become scarcer every year as car wash owners invest in touchless technologies — “We’ve been way ahead on how automation destroys jobs,” Melendrez said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2025
Housing and child care are often expensive, making large families scarcer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
We have manioc and yams to fill our bellies, but protein is scarcer than diamonds.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
But periodically investors get a reminder that one of the scarcest AI resources is top talent.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 20, 2026
Hatakeyama compares this to an updated version of Liebig's famous barrel analogy, in which a plant's growth is limited by its shortest stave, representing the scarcest resource.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025
The scarcest resource in the AI arms race is access to computing, which is why OpenAI and others are pledging to spend trillions of dollars in the coming years to make sure the capacity expands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2025
As she climbs the corporate ladder of a Texas-based oil company, Bunny slowly realizes that energy isn’t just a matter of machines, but also the toughest and scarcest commodity for all modern women.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2023
It is far and away the scarcest and most precious substance in the world.
From The Skylark of Space by E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
