Scant

How to spell scant

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce scant

What does scant mean?

1. adjectiveBarely sufficient in amount; falling short of what is needed or expected.

Scant in a sentence

• The report offered only scant detail about the missing funds.

• Survivors made do with scant supplies until the rescue boats arrived.

Where does scant come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Scant entered English from Old Norse, where the word skamt was the neuter form of skammr, an adjective that literally meant 'short' or 'brief'. Norse settlers brought it into the north of England during the Viking age, and by the 1300s it was being used to describe an amount that falls short of what is wanted or expected. The original sense of physical shortness softened into the modern idea of barely enough, so a scant cupful is one that is not quite full. The same Norse root for shortness is distantly related to other northern words for cutting short and trimming back. Because the word is short and ends crisply in the cluster '-nt', it gives writers little trouble in spelling, unlike many of its French-derived synonyms.

How the word is built

• scant (from Old Norse skamt: short, brief), used as adjective and verb in English