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Definition of "scarcity" []

  • Insufficiency of amount or supply; shortage: a scarcity of food that was caused by drought. (noun)
  • Rarity of appearance or occurrence: antiques that are valued for their scarcity. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "scarcity" in a sentence
  • "The types of anxiety that I associate with this level are what I refer to as scarcity and avoidance."
  • "The American scholar, Regina Schwartz, in a provocative book on the dangers of monotheism as reflected in the Jewish and Christian Bible (The Curse of Cain, Chicago 1997), has argued that underlying this question in Scripture is a tension between what she calls scarcity and plenitude."
  • "This excitement and mania put what I call a "scarcity premium" on shares - sending Cisco shares to sell for more than 188 times earnings at the height of the dot-com bubble."