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Webster 1913 Edition


Paucity

Pau′ci-ty

(pa̤′sĭ-ty̆)
,
Noun.
[L.
paucitas
, fr.
paucus
few, little: cf. F.
paucité
See
Few
.]
1.
Fewness; smallness of number; scarcity; rarity.
Hooker.
Revelation denies it by the stern reserve, the
paucity
, and the incompleteness, of its communications.
I. Taylor.
2.
Smallness of quantity; exiguity; insufficiency;
as,
paucity
of blood
.
Sir T. Browne.

Webster 1828 Edition


Paucity

PAU'CITY

,
Noun.
[L. paucitas, from paucus, few.]
1.
Fewness; smallness of number; as the paucity of schools.
2.
Smallness of quantity; as paucity of blood.

Definition 2024


paucity

paucity

English

Noun

paucity (countable and uncountable, plural paucities)

  1. Fewness in number; too few.
    • 1915, Anna Katharine Green, The Golden Slipper, problem 7:
      But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves.
    • 2006, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, "Uncle Sam Wants You," Time, 13 July:
      Your tax refund might be late, owing to a paucity of number crunchers.
  2. A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.
    • 1898, Mark Twain, "At the Appetite-Cure":
      Now came shipwrecks and life in open boats, with the usual paucity of food.
    • 1915, Gene Stratton-Porter, Michael O'Halloran, ch. 12:
      Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest.

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