shortfall
Americannoun
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shortfalls
plural
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the quantity or extent by which something falls short; deficiency; shortage.
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the act or fact of falling short.
noun
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failure to meet a goal or a requirement
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the amount of such a failure; deficiency
a shortfall of £30m
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of shortfall
Explanation
If there's not enough of something, there's a shortfall. You expected to have plenty of Halloween candy, but a shortfall of Skittles has you running to the store to buy more. When an available quantity doesn't meet your needs, or there's a deficiency of something you want, you've got a shortfall. You might dump out your piggybank and discover a shortfall of cash, or start making a soufflé but find an egg shortfall when you open the fridge. This word comes from the idea of a supply that falls short of expectations.
Vocabulary lists containing shortfall
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:
By July it was 88%, and officials concede a gasoline shortfall of nearly 4 million gallons a day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Stormont departments are facing a shortfall of up to £1.6bn,, external according to a spending watchdog.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
But the staging makes up for the dramatic shortfall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The kingdom’s budget deficit, at the equivalent of $42.7 billion in the first half, is already running close to the shortfall it had budgeted for the entire year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
This all started with me noticing a 60-liter shortfall in water production.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
To deal with shortfalls and delays, the Pentagon is "working to streamline procurement processes and production lead times, and to stockpile critical materials, components, and selected munitions," the report said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
Postal Service for years has endured one headache after another, from declining mail volume and financial shortfalls to uneven leadership.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
“For years, wildfire survivors have been forced to wait for answers while restitution shortfalls remain unresolved,” Patterson said in a statement after the bill passed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
"This identified shortfalls in fire measures which were reported to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Consort and other stakeholders," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
The unemployment caused home foreclosures, leading to shortfalls in property tax receipts, and therefore holes in the school budget.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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.
