shortage

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required
noun an acute insufficiency

From short + -age.

179; on cotton shortage, i. — Great Britain and the American Civil War, Ephraim Douglass Adams
=merma=, f., waste, leakage, shortage, diminution. — The Spanish American Reader, Ernesto Nelson
There's no shortage of help in the revenge business. — Terminal Compromise, Winn Schwartau

deficit, shortfall

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