lacking
Americanpreposition
adjective
Etymology
Origin of lacking
Explanation
If something's lacking, there's not enough of it. Your new house may be lacking when it comes to comfortable chairs, leading your friends to lounge on the floor instead. If there's a shortage of something, it's lacking. You might also describe something that's deficient — or not quite good enough — as lacking. If a substitute teacher is lacking in skill when it comes to controlling a rowdy class, he'll be exhausted by the end of his first day on the job. Finally, you can use this word in the sense of "absent": If your older brother's appetite is lacking, he might be coming down with something — usually he can eat an entire pizza on his own.
Vocabulary lists containing lacking
Absent
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Scarce
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Scarce
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The billionaire certainly isn’t lacking for housing options in the Big Apple, where he owns several dwellings—including an extraordinary penthouse that he bought for $238 million in 2019.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 22, 2026
Yee, lacking financial resources and voter recognition despite being elected to statewide office twice, dropped out of the 2026 governor’s race.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026
"Cells lacking the system lost their normal rectangular-like cell shape and instead became round and swollen," Springstein explains.
From Science Daily • Apr. 20, 2026
William Osula once again justified that call with his second goal in two games, but Newcastle are an increasingly blunt side lacking aggression, quality and ideas.
From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026
At one point, lacking a better plan, the CIA considered signaling to Penkovsky simply to toss the package over the wall of the US embassy as he walked by.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
