Deficiency

How to spell deficiency

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce deficiency

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deficiency mean?

1. nounA lack or shortage of something necessary, or a failure to meet a required standard.

Deficiency in a sentence

• The blood test revealed an iron deficiency that explained her tiredness.

• The auditor flagged a serious deficiency in the company's record keeping.

Where does deficiency come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb deficere, meaning 'to fail', 'to be wanting', or 'to fall short', which was formed from de- ('down' or 'away') and facere ('to make' or 'to do'). The literal sense was something like 'to undo' or 'to leave undone', from which grew the idea of a shortfall or lack. The Latin noun deficientia, describing a state of falling short, passed into English in the early 1600s, often spelled deficience at first before settling on the modern form. The very same facere root sits inside a huge family of English words such as 'factory', 'effect', and 'deficit', the last of which is its closest cousin. The spelling trap is the soft -cien- in the middle, where the c sounds like 'sh', so writers must remember it follows the pattern of 'sufficient' and 'efficient' rather than spelling it with an 's'.

How the word is built

• de- (down, away)
• fic- (from facere: to make, to do)
• -iency (noun suffix denoting a state or quality)