Lack

How to spell lack

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lack

What does lack mean?

1. verbTo be without or not have enough of something.
2. nounA shortage or absence of something needed or wanted.

Lack in a sentence

• verb

  The new flat seemed to lack proper storage space.

• noun

  The project stalled because of a lack of clear direction.

• verb

  Many small firms lack the funds to expand quickly.

• noun

  A lack of sleep left her unable to concentrate at work.

Where does lack come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word lack arrived in Middle English around the 1300s as 'lak', meaning a deficiency or a fault, and it is closely related to Middle Dutch and Middle Low German 'lak', which carried the same sense of a shortcoming or blemish. The deeper root is Germanic, tied to ideas of being loose, deficient, or wanting in something. From the start it carried two strands that survive today: the sense of simply not having something, and an older sense of a flaw or failing. The verb developed naturally from the noun, describing the state of being without something one needs. Because the word is short and phonetically transparent, its spelling has stayed remarkably stable, and the final 'ck' simply follows the regular English habit of writing that sound after a short vowel.

How the word is built

• lack (single root from Middle English lak: deficiency, fault); no prefix or suffix