Paucity refers to "littleness" in numbers (as in "a paucity of facts") or quantity ("a paucity of common sense"). The word comes from paucus, Latin for "little."
If you had one of those Yugoslav names with a paucity of vowels, you might sprinkle in a few …—Calvin Trillin, Time, 22 May 2000For my part, I find increasingly that I miss the simplicity, the almost willful paucity, of the English way of doing things.—Bill Bryson, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999This relative paucity of freeloaders and deadbeats means that rookie Americans, as a group, more than pay their way.—Jaclyn Fierman, Fortune, 9 Aug. 1993
a paucity of useful answers to the problem of traffic congestion at rush hour
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Barnes: Our old pecans, too, are untouched by the heat and paucity of rain so far.—Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025 Not just no goals, but a paucity of scoring chances compared to any stretch of the first four games.—Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 15 June 2025 Despite the frequent paucity of BLM cartographic resources, apparently Jackson never got lost or worried about dropping the thread of a trail.—Melina Sempill Watts, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025 But the Fort Pierce station doesn’t address a paucity of local news coverage in Palm Beach County, Rampell suggested. .—David Lyons, Sun Sentinel, 9 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for paucity
Word History
Etymology
Middle English paucite, from Latin paucitat-, paucitas, from paucus little — more at few
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