- present participle of lack.
lacking
Americanpreposition
adjective
Etymology
Origin of lacking
Explanation
If something's lacking, there's not enough of it. Your new house may be lacking when it comes to comfortable chairs, leading your friends to lounge on the floor instead. If there's a shortage of something, it's lacking. You might also describe something that's deficient — or not quite good enough — as lacking. If a substitute teacher is lacking in skill when it comes to controlling a rowdy class, he'll be exhausted by the end of his first day on the job. Finally, you can use this word in the sense of "absent": If your older brother's appetite is lacking, he might be coming down with something — usually he can eat an entire pizza on his own.
Vocabulary lists containing lacking
Absent
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Empty
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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.
Idealab founder Bill Gross said he embraced the concept as an alternative to the tiny home formula of extremely low-cost structures lacking amenities but requiring tens of thousands of dollars in installation and utility costs.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 7, 2026
Although Turkey will eventually fit the fighter with its own domestically-produced engine -- the F110s lacking stealth capability -- that project is still in the preliminary design phase, Defence Minister Yasar Guler said in September.
From Barron's • Jul. 5, 2026
“The evidence is telling us this program is lacking its reason to exist,” said Kirk McClure, an emeritus professor of urban planning at the University of Kansas and a leading critic of the tax credit.
From Salon • Jul. 4, 2026
Cells lacking Mitch, however, depended much more on fat as their primary fuel source.
From Science Daily • Jul. 3, 2026
And yet a pernicious seed had been planted—a perception of me as disgruntled and vaguely hostile, lacking some expected level of grace.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
