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.
The term, which describes an unsettling, empty place lacking signs of life, has now become an object of fascination among young people online.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
Pelley accused CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the program and berated Bilton, a former New York Times journalist, for lacking TV news experience.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2026
In one example, two mice lacking methylation on a specific allele produced offspring in which both copies of that allele carried methylation.
From Science Daily • Jun. 1, 2026
Though breadth has been lacking in recent weeks, smaller stocks have been a punching above their weight.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
I searched her face closely and found her expression entirely lacking in the grasping quality that Minerva Goodacre had displayed.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
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.
