The state of needing something that is absent or unavailable:
— Water is the critical deficiency in desert regions.

synonyms: lack, want.

Roget 945: vice; evil-doing, evil courses; wrongdoing; wickedness, viciousness etc. adj.; iniquity, peccability^†, demerit; sin, Adam^†; old Adam^†, offending Adam^†.    immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals; enphagy^†, dophagy^†, exophagy^†; want of principle, want of ballast; obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity^†, depravity, pollution; hardness of heart; brutality etc. (malevolence) 907; corruption etc. (debasement) 659; knavery etc. (improbity) 940^†; profligacy; flagrancy, atrocity; cannibalism; lesbianism, Sadism.    infirmity; weakness etc. adj.; weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection; error; weak side; foible; failing, failure; crying sin, besetting sin; defect, deficiency; cloven foot.    lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den^†; gusto picaresco [It].    fault, crime; criminality etc. (guilt) 947.    sinner etc. 949.    [Resorts] brothel etc. 961; gambling house etc. 621; joint [Slang], opium den, shooting gallery, crack house.    ... show more

Roget 640: insufficiency; inadequacy, inadequateness; incompetence etc. (impotence) 158; deficiency etc. (incompleteness) 53; imperfection etc. 651; shortcoming etc. 304; paucity; stint; scantiness etc. (smallness) 32; none to spare, bare subsistence.    scarcity, dearth; want, need, lack, poverty, exigency; inanition, starvation, famine, drought.    dole, mite, pittance; short allowance, short commons; half rations; banyan day.    emptiness, poorness etc. adj.; depletion, vacancy, flaccidity; ebb tide; low water; a beggarly account of empty boxes" [Romeo and Juliet]; indigence etc. 804; insolvency etc. (nonpayment) 808.    ... show more

Roget 34: inferiority, minority, subordinacy; shortcoming, deficiency; minimum; smallness etc. 32; imperfection; lower quality, lower worth.    [personal inferiority] commonalty etc. 876.    ... show more

Dutch: onvolkomenheid, ontoereikendheid, krapte, gemis, deficiëntie, gebrek, tekort
Polish: brak

Lack of an adequate quantity or number.

synonyms: inadequacy, insufficiency.

Roget 651: imperfection; imperfectness etc. adj.; deficiency; inadequacy etc. (insufficiency) 640; peccancy etc. (badness) 649^†; immaturity etc. 674.    fault, defect, weak point; screw loose; flaw etc. (break) 70; gap etc. 198; twist etc. 243; taint, attainder; bar sinister, hole in one's coat; blemish etc. 848; weakness etc. 160; half blood; shortcoming etc. 304; drawback; seamy side.    mediocrity; no great shakes, no great catch; not much to boast of; one-horse shay.    ... show more

Roget 53: incompleteness etc. adj.; deficiency, short measure; shortcoming etc. 304; insufficiency etc. 640; imperfection etc. 651; immaturity etc. (nonpreparation) 674; half measures.    [part wanting] defect, deficit, defalcation, omission; caret; shortage; interval etc. 198; break etc. (discontinuity) 70; noncompletion etc. 730; missing link.    missing piece, missing part, gap, hole, lacuna.    ... show more

Dutch: slapte
Polish: niedostateczność, niewystarczalność