Paucity refers to "littleness" in numbers (as in "a paucity of facts") or quantity ("a paucity of common sense"). The word comes from paucus, Latin for "little."
If you had one of those Yugoslav names with a paucity of vowels, you might sprinkle in a few …—Calvin Trillin, Time, 22 May 2000For my part, I find increasingly that I miss the simplicity, the almost willful paucity, of the English way of doing things.—Bill Bryson, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999This relative paucity of freeloaders and deadbeats means that rookie Americans, as a group, more than pay their way.—Jaclyn Fierman, Fortune, 9 Aug. 1993
a paucity of useful answers to the problem of traffic congestion at rush hour
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Further, despite the paucity of information from the most elite schools, admissions trends at second-tier and other highly ranked schools offer revealing information about the broader admissions landscape.—Christopher Rim, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2024 The paucity of e-SAF projects in Europe has seen the airline group and its competitors venture well beyond the continent to remain on track with their low carbon emissions targets.—Gaurav Sharma, Forbes, 26 Nov. 2024 Leaving the lineup alone Pitching took precedence over lengthening Houston’s lineup, Brown said, an understandable stance given the state of his starting rotation, workload concerns with the Astros’ leverage relievers and the aforementioned paucity of prospect capital.—Chandler Rome, The Athletic, 30 July 2024 The paucity of federal data privacy protections is a stark reminder that while the candidates are addressing some of the challenges posed by developments in AI and technology more broadly, a lot still remains to be done to regulate technology in the public interest.—Anjana Susarla, Quartz, 21 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for paucity
Word History
Etymology
Middle English paucite, from Latin paucitat-, paucitas, from paucus little — more at few
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