dearth.

An insufficient supply of something needed or valued.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a dearth of evidence
• a dearth of opportunity
• a dearth of reliable information

On the page

A dearth of witnesses made the village's certainty all the more troubling.

The town suffered no shortage of monuments, only a dearth of places where children could play.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Singular dearth; plural dearths, though normally used in a dearth of. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.