insufficiency

What it means

1. The lack of sufficiency: a shortage, the state of having or being not enough (of something).

   Near-synonyms: deficiency (broadly synonymous), inadequacy

   3 more examples

   The troops went hungry because of the insufficiency of their supplies.

   She may crowd her days with gaiety, variety, and what are called amusements; she will do so only to find their insufficiency.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XXI. Lady Marchmont’s Journal.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 160

   On a recent trip down the Rhine many of the trains we saw were still steam-hauled, presumably through an insufficiency of electric locomotives, as yet, to deal with peak summer traffic.

   1962 October, “Beyond the Channel: Western Germany: Rhine right-bank line re-signalling”, in Modern Railways, page 276

   Synonyms: lack, unsufficiency, deficiency[Appendix:Glossary, inadequacy

In a sentence

Near-synonyms: deficiency (broadly synonymous), inadequacy

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*né
2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
3. Proto-Italic*n̥-
4. Latinin-
5. Middle Englishin-
6. Englishin-
7. Englishsufficiency
8. Englishinsufficiency

From in- + sufficiency.