lack of something
the state of not being good enough, or a fault that makes something not good enough:
As the game went on, the team's deficiency was obvious.
deficiency inDeficiencies in the education system have been much in the news.新闻媒体对教育体制的种种不足进行了大量的报道。
Severe iron deficiency can cause developmental delay and growth retardation.严重缺铁会导致发育迟缓。
The rash is a classic symptom of a zinc deficiency.
There was clear deficiency in the standard of service provided.
Despite his deficiencies as a husband, he was a good father to his children.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Scarce, inadequate and not enough
be at a premiumidiom
be thin on the groundidiom
chronic shortage
dearth
dearth of something
gold dust
lack
lacking
like gold dustidiom
long on something and short on somethingidiom
lousy
meagre
scarcity
scrubby
shortage
shortfall
shortness
shy
skinny
thin

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Not good enough
Faults and mistakes

deficiency | American Dictionary

deficiency
noun[ C/U ]
us/dɪˈfɪʃ·ən·si/
the lack of something that is needed in order to meet a particular standard or level of quality, or the thing that is lacking:
[ U ]Many women suffer from iron deficiency.

deficiency | Business English

deficiency
noun[ C ]
uk /dɪˈfɪʃənsi/uspluraldeficiencies
[ C ]
a situation in which something is not as good as it should be:
a deficiency in sthThe audit revealed deficiences in the accounting system.
an operations/performance/service deficiency
identify/highlight a deficiencyWe need to identify any deficiencies in the system and address them immediately.
address/correct/remedy a deficiency
ACCOUNTING
the amount by which something such as income or profit is less than it should be:
a deficiency in sthThey are not permitted to borrow additional funds as long as any deficiency exists in the capital reserve fund.
The accounts show a balance sheet deficiency - the amount by which liabilities exceed assets - of £13.19m at December 31.
The company has suffered recurring losses from operations and has a net capital deficiency that raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.
TAX, ACCOUNTING US
the amount by which the tax recorded in someone's financial records is less than the tax they actually owe, or a situation in which this happens:
The IRS notified him that he was subject to a $10000 tax deficiency for the 2009 tax year.

Examples of deficiency

deficiency
There is now sufficient evidence to link orexin\\hypocretin deficiency to narcolepsy.
For many years, these deficiencies were understandable as they were traced to the extended absence of viable models of personality in the field of psychology.
It can be seen that the low rate in the oral contraceptive users is not attributable to a deficiency of any particular form of cancer.
Later, the oral oestrogen (diethylstilboestrol) was combined with a special multivitamin supplement to help combat common, local vitamin deficiencies.
This is an excellent design for structured precision manipulation, but has deficiencies.
In summary, these small errors and deficiencies do not detract significantly from the overall usefulness of this book.
The changes in levels of ferredoxin were insufficient to support ferredoxin deficiency as a cause of aerobic metronidazole resistance.
Section 2 outlines the epistemological assumptions and deficiencies of the "uncertainty reduction" argument.
In order to overcome the aforementioned deficiency, the polytope technique is proposed in this article.
Plant response to stress: biochemical adaptations to phosphate deficiency.
Ten films showed evidence of iron deficiency anaemia.
The few women accounted as poor marriage partners because of obvious deficiencies have entered into temporary, non-marital, childbearing unions.
Findings within the ventricular walls and coronary vessels suggest a relationship of this complex to regional deficiencies of myocardial vascularization.
Dichotomous measures (democracy\\authoritarianism) are particularly prone to this deficiency.
A common misconception is that deficiencies or adversities can influence brain maturation only in very early development.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations withdeficiency

deficiency

These are words often used in combination with deficiency.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

dietary deficiency
More recent work indicates that in kwashiorkor there is a failure to adapt to the dietary deficiency and that this is often precipitated by infection.
glaring deficiency
However, the book had one glaring deficiency.
hormone deficiency
Should growth hormone deficiency in older people be treated?
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with deficiency