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   scarce

   /skɛːs/

   adjective

   • 1. (especially of food, money, or some other resource) insufficient for the demand: "as raw materials became scarce, synthetics were developed" Similar in short supplyshortscantscantymeagresparsehard to findhard to come bynot enoughtoo littleinsufficientdeficientinadequatelackingwantingat a premiumlike gold dustnot to be hadscarcer than hen's teethpaltrynegligiblethininformal:not to be had for love nor moneyrare:exiguousOpposite plentifulabundant
   • ▪ occurring in small numbers or quantities; rare: "the freshwater shrimp becomes scarce in soft water" Similar rarefew and far betweenthin on the groundseldom seen/founduncommonunusualinfrequentout of the commonOpposite common

   adverb

   • 1. scarcely: archaic "a babe scarce two years old"

   Word Origin Middle English (in the sense ‘restricted in quantity or size’, also ‘parsimonious’): from a shortening of Anglo-Norman escars, from a Romance word meaning ‘plucked out, selected’.

   Derivatives

   • 1. scarceness noun

   Scrabble Points: 10

   • S

     1

   • C

     3

   • A

     1

   • R

     1

   • C

     3

   • E

     1

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