scant.

1. Small in amount, often less than needed or expected.

2. Give less attention, respect, or provision than something deserves.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• scant rainfall
• scant evidence

On the page

Scant rainfall forced the village to ration water.

Usage notes

Primary category: setting / environment. Forms: Comparative more scant; superlative most scant when comparison is meaningful. 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: setting, description. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: scants.