Synonyms for deficient
- adjective
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Inadequate
inadequate, poor, defective, incomplete, inferior, sub-standard, unsatisfactory, ineffective, bad, imperfect, scanty, ineffectual, skimpy, meager US CA, meagre UK, sorry, lean, scant, incompetent, slender, jejune
2. Lacking — lacking something essential; often construed with in
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Lacking something essential; often construed with in.
My diet is deficient in vitamin D.
- adj. 2
Insufficient or inadequate in amount.
Apothecia lecanoroid; multilocular; each cell containing a single theke; paraphyses deficient.
Related words
- Word family
- defect defection defective defector deficiency deficit
- Phrases
- mental deficient deficient number
Example sentences
- incomplete He makes judgements based on incomplete knowledge.
- inadequate At times like this, words are woefully inadequate.
- defective They checked to see if the machine was defective.
- lacking The service is slow because they're lacking staff.
- absent If he is absent, we will not have an English test.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| deficient | falling | |
| incomplete | steady | |
| inadequate | falling | |
| defective | falling | |
| lacking | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- bad1, shy1
- 4 letters
- poor1, lean1
- 5 letters
- short1, sorry2, scant1
- 6 letters
- absent2, scarce1, meager2, meagre, skimpy2, scanty2, jejune2
- 7 letters
- wanting2, lacking2, slender2
- 8 letters
- inferior4
- 9 letters
- defective3, imperfect3, destitute3
- 10 letters
- incomplete3, inadequate4
- 11 letters
- ineffective4, incompetent4, ineffectual5
- 12 letters
- insufficient4
- 14 letters
- unsatisfactory6
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (sorry2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- déficient
- Italiano
- deficiente
- Español
- deficiente