as in shortage
a falling short of an essential or desirable amount or number
there's a famine of good general practitioners in many rural areas
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of famine
With a genocide in Congo and war, famine and ethnic cleasing in Sudan, to cite just two of the conflicts currently happening in Africa, that dream seems impossible.
—
Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 7 Sep. 2025
Already, leading experts on hunger have declared a famine in Gaza City due to Israeli restrictions on aid.
—Aya Batrawy, NPR, 5 Sep. 2025
Humanitarian organizations estimate over 13 million people have been displaced by the fighting between the government’s military forces and the rebel RSF fighters, with famine and disease a by-product of the struggle for power.
—Rory Fleming, CNN Money, 5 Sep. 2025
Creators can wrestle with feast-or-famine income, grueling admin work, and platforms that too often siphon off value.
—Matt Emma, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for famine
Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 7 Sep. 2025
Already, leading experts on hunger have declared a famine in Gaza City due to Israeli restrictions on aid.
—Aya Batrawy, NPR, 5 Sep. 2025
Humanitarian organizations estimate over 13 million people have been displaced by the fighting between the government’s military forces and the rebel RSF fighters, with famine and disease a by-product of the struggle for power.
—Rory Fleming, CNN Money, 5 Sep. 2025
Creators can wrestle with feast-or-famine income, grueling admin work, and platforms that too often siphon off value.
—Matt Emma, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for famine
Recent Examples of Synonyms for famine
Noun
-
The 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack shut down the largest refined products pipeline in the United States for several days, creating fuel shortages and demonstrating how OT disruptions cascade through the economy.—
Bob Ackerman,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
-
In a decade that some critics believe has a shortage of newness and invention, slop is one of the few frontiers that’s actively being pushed.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
10 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
And the noticeable dips also don’t come for the generations of players who would be expecting to play their peak years for England during wartime either — note the lack of games in the 1940s in the earlier graph.—
Michael Cox,
New York Times,
6 Sep. 2025
-
The lack of winning has been exactly the problem during the Chuba years at Carolina.—
Scott Fowler,
Charlotte Observer,
5 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
On Tuesday, 85 scientists released a 459-page rebuttal to the DOE report, highlighting a large body of scientific literature pointing to how climate change can exacerbate droughts, floods, crop failures, and other disasters.—
Robert Schmad,
The Washington Examiner,
7 Sep. 2025
-
More than 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, a situation set to worsen due to climate change, which fuels longer and more severe drought.—
Laura Paddison,
CNN Money,
6 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Famine.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/famine. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share