lexicow

scarce

/skers//skeəs/·adjective
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Definition

Scarce measures a ratio, not an amount: something is scarce when the wanting outruns the having. That is what separates it from 'rare' — gold is rare everywhere, but water is scarce only where thirst exceeds the wells. Economics calls itself the study of scarce resources for exactly this reason: scarcity is the founding condition that forces every choice. And the first thing scarcity changes is never the resource — it is the behavior of the people seeking it.

Examples

  • After the flood, clean water became scarce: supplies shrank while demand continued to surge.
  • Affordable housing is increasingly scarce in the capital, and the disparity between wages and rents keeps widening.
  • During the recession, steady jobs grew scarce and competition for them fierce.

Collocations

scarce resources·increasingly scarce·a scarce commodity·scarce supplies·make oneself scarce

Synonyms

in short supply·sparse·meager·insufficient·rare

Antonyms

abundant·plentiful·ample

Word family

scarcity (noun)·scarcely (adverb — 'hardly', a shifted sense)

In TOEFL & IELTS

'The allocation of scarce resources' is the textbook definition of economics, and TOEFL passages quote it almost verbatim. IELTS essays on housing, water, and jobs all reward 'increasingly scarce' and the noun 'scarcity'. Two traps: 'scarcely' means 'hardly' (degree, not supply), and scarce ≠ rare — scarce is always relative to demand, which is the distinction reading questions test.