Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DEARTH

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connect this word to others: On the ladder of formality, right around the middle, we've got words like shortage, scarcity, and lack. Up a little higher are dearth and pau__ty ("an amount of something that's too small"). And down a little lower: slim pickings. To go even lower, spell it like you're writing it on the menu for Cracker Barrel: slim pickin's. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "DEARTH" The Old English deore, meaning "costly or precious," eventually gave us the word "dear." And the related Old English word derthe, meaning "a scarcity of food," gave us the English "dearth." "Dearth" originally meant "dearness or costliness." Then, it grew to mean "a shortage of food." And today, a dearth is a shortage or a scarcity of anything valuable. Pronunciation: DIRTH (rhymes with "earth" and "birth") Part of speech: Noun, usually the the countable kind: "a dearth of information," "the city's dearth of neuropsychologists." (In older texts, you'll see "dearth" used as an uncountable noun meaning "famine" or "almost-famine:" "they endured the years of dearth," "they suffered in time of dearth.") Other forms: Just the plural, which we hardly ever need: "dearths." How to use it:  Pick this formal but common word to emphasize how dear or valuable something is when you don't have enough of it. Generally we talk about a dearth of something: a dearth of affordable apartments, a dearth of good scientific research, a dearth of reliable witnesses to that event, a dearth of good radio stations in your city, the dearth of significant local news stories that opens the airwaves to constant updates about newborn baby animals in zoos. Because the word "dearth" is usually so serious, you can use it for a funny kind of mock-formality: "a pop song with a refreshing dearth of auto-tune;" "This Christmas movie suffers from a dearth of gorgeous single moms in fluffy sweaters." examples: "Differences in culture, language and mission compounded a dearth of trust on both sides."    — Alex W. Palmer, New York Times, 16 October 2019 "Highlighting an unmistakable dearth of epic, amazing [guitar] solos in recent years, Americans of all ages have reportedly called on the nation’s musicians to play technically difficult licks on their electric guitars, preferably at lightning-fast speeds, stressing the importance that the solos be both 'loud as hell' and 'totally insane.'"    — The Onion, 17 March 2014 has this page helped you understand "dearth"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "dearth" without saying "insufficiency" or "scantness." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "A dearth of _____ is an inconvenience; a dearth of _____ is an emergency." Example: "To my little daughter, a dearth of art supplies is an inconvenience; a dearth of chocolate milk is an emergency." If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first. This month, we're playing "What's the Word?" On Reddit, r/whatstheword is a community of about 55,000 members: folks who gather to help each other out when they can't think of a particular word. "It's on the tip of my tongue," they say. Or, "This word might not even exist. Help!" In each issue this month, check out a post from the community, and see if you can come up with the word or phrase in question. We'll work our way from relatively easy to extremely hard questions as the month goes on. From the previous issue: A community member asked, "What's the word for when you think you're smarter than people from history because you know that the decisions made were mistakes? Like saying ‘Napoleon was stupid for invading Russia’ is obvious to us now, but it's only obvious because someone made that mistake. Is there a word for when someone acts smug, like they would have known better?" Answer: Either "hindsight bias" or "historian's fallacy." Try this today: A community member asked, "What's the word for the uncomfortableness you feel when someone is doing/going overboard for you? Quite common word in Asian countries. Example: when you’ve finished eating at someone’s house, he/she is cleaning your dishes for you. You feel uncomfortable because he/she is cleaning the dishes that you messed up. Or when someone is continually doing something for you without you doing something for him/her back. But you feel sorryish, and you wish you could do something in return but just can’t yet." I'll share the answer in the upcoming issue, but if you can't wait, you can view the whole original thread here. review this word: 1. The opposite of DEARTH is A. EXCESS. B. VARIETY. C. QUALITY. 2. The Brothers Grimm begin the story of Hansel and Gretel like this: "Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children... and once when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even _____." A. daily bread B. a pail of water C. a log for the fire 1. A 2. A a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.