shortage

English

Etymology

short +‎ -age

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈʃɔː(ɹ)tɪd͡ʒ/
Audio (UK) (file)

Noun

shortage (countable and uncountable, plural shortages)

A lack or deficiency; an insufficient amount.
- 1946 July and August, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 213:
  The admirable smoothness of the riding also reflected the greatest credit on those who, despite the difficulties caused by the shortage of men and materials, have succeeded in maintaining the track in such first-class order.
- 2013 August 3, “The future of oil: Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8847:
  The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. […] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

Antonyms

glut
mountain (as in butter mountain)
surplus

Related terms

outage

Translations

lack or deficiency

Assamese: নাটনি (natoni), অনাটন (onaton)
Azerbaijani: çatışmazlıq, qıtlıq
Bulgarian: липса (bg) f (lipsa), недостиг (bg) m (nedostig)
Catalan: manca (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 短缺 (zh) (duǎnquē), 緊缺／紧缺 (jǐnquē)
Esperanto: malabundo
Finnish: pula (fi), puute (fi)
French: défaut (fr) m, rareté (fr) f, pénurie (fr) f, déficit (fr) m, insuffisance (fr) f
Georgian: please add this translation if you can
German: Mangel (de) m, Knappheit (de) f
Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌹𐌽𐌰𐍃𐍃𐌿𐍃 m (waninassus)
Greek:
Ancient: σπάνις f (spánis)
Hindi: कमी (hi) f (kamī)
Hungarian: hiány (hu)
Italian: scarsità (it) f, mancanza (it) f, penuria (it) f, insufficienza (it) f, carenza (it) f
Japanese: 不足 (ja) (ふそく, fusoku), 欠損 (ja) (けっそん, kesson)
Korean: 부족 (ko) (bujok), 흠손 (heumson)
Latin: inopia f
Macedonian: недо́статок m (nedóstatok), не́достиг m (nédostig)
Maori: kōpaka, ngōuruuru
Norwegian:
Bokmål: mangel (no) m, underskudd n
Nynorsk: mangel m
Portuguese: falta (pt) f, carência (pt) f, insuficiência (pt) f
Russian: недоста́ток (ru) m (nedostátok), нехва́тка (ru) f (nexvátka), дефици́т (ru) m (deficít), недоста́точность (ru) f (nedostátočnostʹ)
Scottish Gaelic: cion m, gainne f, gainnead m
Spanish: falta (es) f, carestía (es) f, escasez (es) f
Swahili: uhaba (sw)
Turkish: azlık (tr), kesinti (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked‌: "deleted sense: not enough, not sufficient"

Chinese:
Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 缺乏 (zh) (quēfá)
Georgian: ^{(please verify)} ნაკლებობა (naḳleboba), ^{(please verify)} დეფიციტი (depiciṭi), ^{(please verify)} უკმარობა (uḳmaroba), ^{(please verify)} სიმწირე (simc̣ire)
Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} elégtelenség (hu)