deficiency Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable
    lack; want.
    • there is a serious lack of insight into the problem
    • water is the critical deficiency in desert regions
    • for want of a nail the shoe was lost
  2. noun lack of an adequate quantity or number
    insufficiency; inadequacy.
    • the inadequacy of unemployment benefits

WordNet

De*fi"cien*cy noun
Etymology
See Deficient.
Wordforms
plural Deficiencies
Definitions
  1. The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect. "A deficiencyof blood." Arbuthnot.
    [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. Buckle.

Webster 1913