- 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.
Lacking an 800V system and high-voltage inverter, the Optiq’s charging rate tops out at 150 kW—which is not…great.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 16, 2026
Lacking leads in the Virginia bank robbery, a police detective turned to what one judge in the case called a “groundbreaking investigative tool ... enabling the relentless collection of eerily precise location data.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2026
Lacking options, many displaced people therefore have to find relatives who can host them or pay exorbitant rents to landlords, explained Fadi Al-Halabi, executive director in Lebanon of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network.
From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026
Lacking both the respect of the clergy and Khomeini's personal popularity, the new supreme leader moved cautiously to build his own power base.
From BBC • Feb. 28, 2026
Lacking men, Theon had been forced to abandon the outer defenses and post his guards along the higher inner walls.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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.
