lack
/læk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.92 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
Obsolete
verb
To be off one's guard.
Example Sentences
- "It is a question of money, or lack of same."
- "[…] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;"
- "I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down."
- "If Moldova harboured even the slightest hopes of pulling off a comeback that would have bordered on miraculous given their lack of quality, they were snuffed out 13 minutes before the break when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked his way through midfield before releasing Defoe for a finish that should have been dealt with more convincingly by Namasco at his near post."
- "More flak was aimed at the Treasury's apparent lack of marketing skills, when it was argued that its idea of how to sell tickets was along the lines of "you can get two tickets for the price of two", and it lacks the sales and promotional skills of the train operating companies which are needed to boost revenue."
- "In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned."
Etymology
From Middle English lack, lakke, lak, from Old English *læc (“deficiency, lack, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak, from Proto-Germanic *laką, *lakaz (“slackness”), from Proto-Germanic *lakaz (“limp, slack, loose, low”), related to *lak(k)ōną (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Lak (“lack”), Middle Low German lack, lak (“lack”), Dutch lak (“lack, deficiency, calumny”), Icelandic lakur (“lacking”). Related also to Middle Dutch laken (“to blame, lack”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English carence (“absence, lack”), from Old French carence.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /læk/
- British English: /læk/