deficit.

An amount by which what is available falls below what is needed, expected, or spent.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• budget deficit
• trade deficit

On the page

The council reduced its budget deficit without closing the library.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Singular deficit; plural deficits. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, evaluation, business. Commonness: common.