Deficient

How to spell deficient

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce deficient

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deficient mean?

1. adjectiveLacking some element or quality that is necessary or expected; not enough.

Deficient in a sentence

• The report was deficient in hard evidence, so the committee rejected it.

• A diet deficient in iron can leave a person constantly tired.

Where does deficient come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb deficere, meaning 'to fail', 'to desert', or 'to fall short', formed from de- ('down' or 'away') and facere ('to do' or 'to make'), so the literal sense was something like 'to undo' or 'to leave undone'. Its present participle deficiens, with the stem deficient-, described something that was running out or falling short of what was needed. English took the word in during the fifteenth century, keeping the sense of lacking or being short of a required quantity. The same facere root, meaning 'to make', is hidden inside a large family of English words such as 'efficient', 'sufficient', 'proficient', and 'defect'. That shared -ficient pattern explains the spelling trap: the sound is a plain 'sh', but it is written 'ci', echoing the original Latin facere.

How the word is built

• de- (down, away)
• fic (from Latin facere: to do, make)
• -ient (adjective suffix)