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:
Karim Fawaz, executive director at S&P Global Energy, warned in the analysis that “Inventories are low, spare refining capacity is scarce, and seasonal demand is about to strengthen at exactly the wrong moment.”
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
Food and medicine have also become more scarce, with hospitals struggling to function normally and schools and government offices having to close.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Housing supply has crept up to a seven-year high, as buyers remain scarce.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
If entry-level positions become scarce, simply earning a degree will no longer provide sufficient preparation for a career.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
“Uh-uh. You get to drop me off and then you make yourselves scarce till you pick me up in two hours and then we tell Hollis that we spent the afternoon running around the country.”
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
That has made diesel scarcer — and more expensive — globally.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Since the start of the war, certain Iranian products have become scarcer, and others have seen their prices soar, says Morteza Asaadi, who runs the grocery store his father founded in 1963.
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
Even as graduate hiring shows early glimmers of a rebound, summer internship opportunities appear to be getting scarcer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
By the time the next crew swapped with his that afternoon, they were scarcer: “One every 30 minutes, roughly,” Ulibarri recalled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2026
All summer prices climbed higher and higher and food got scarcer and scarcer.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
Strike-fighter pilots are the scarcest asset in a carrier strike group.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
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
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
Two of the scarcest English books upon seals were compiled by clergymen.
From The Book-Hunter at Home by P. B. M. Allan
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.
