Synonyms for scarce
skɛərsscarce

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:2.5 / 4 votes

1. scarce

   Unique is alone of its kind; rare is infrequent of its kind; great poems are rare; "Paradise Lost" is unique. To say of a thing that it is rare is simply to affirm that it is now seldom found, whether previously common or not; as, a rare old book; a rare word; to call a thing scarce implies that it was at some time more plenty, as when we say food or money is scarce. A particular fruit or coin may be rare; scarce applies to demand and use, and almost always to concrete things; to speak of virtue, genius, or heroism as scarce would be somewhat ludicrous. Rare has the added sense of precious, which is sometimes, but not necessarily, blended with that above given; as, a rare gem. Extraordinary, signifying greatly beyond the ordinary, is a neutral word, capable of a high and good sense or of an invidious, opprobrious, or contemptuous signification; as, extraordinary genius; extraordinary wickedness; an extraordinary assumption of power; extraordinary antics; an extraordinary statement is incredible without overwhelming proof.

   See synonyms for GENERAL; NORMAL; USUAL.

   Synonyms:
   curious, extraordinary, incomparable, infrequent, odd, peculiar, precious, rare, remarkable, singular, strange, uncommon, unique, unparalleled, unprecedented, unusual

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:4.0 / 1 vote

1. scarce

   Synonyms:
   rare, infrequent, unabundant, unique, uncommon, unusual, singular, precious, choice, few, wanting, sparse

   Antonyms:
   common, frequent, abundant, valueless, thick, plentiful

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:3.2 / 10 votes

1. scarceadverb

   deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand

   "fresh vegetables were scarce during the drought"

   Antonyms:
   rank, overabundant, rich, long, lush, plentiful, teeming, rampant, ample, plethoric, verdant, abounding, torrential, plenteous, thick, riotous, abundant, copious, galore(ip), superabundant, profuse, luxuriant, easy, exuberant, rife, voluminous

2. barely, hardly, just, scarcely, scarceadverb

   only a very short time before

   "they could barely hear the speaker"; "we hardly knew them"; "just missed being hit"; "had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open"; "would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave"- W.B.Yeats

   Synonyms:
   just, barely, hardly, scarcely, merely, scantily, exactly, simply, but, precisely, only, just now

   Antonyms:
   luxuriant, superabundant, abundant, plenteous, torrential, plethoric, overabundant, abounding, copious, galore(ip), long, rife, profuse, thick, teeming, riotous, voluminous, ample, rank, rich, plentiful, exuberant, easy, rampant, lush, verdant

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. scarceadjective

   Synonyms:
   deficient, wanting, not plentiful, not abundant

2. scarceadjective

   Synonyms:
   rare, uncommon, infrequent

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. scarceadjective

   Synonyms:
   rare, unplentiful, deficient

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:4.5 / 2 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "scarce":

   rare, meagre, limited, scant, few, uncommon, sparse, little, lean, infrequent, meager, low

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How to use scarce in a sentence?

1. Michael Ison:

   No one has a sense of where there's excess and where there's deficiencies, this is a national limited, scarce resource. There needs to be some process to this.

2. Eurasia Group:

   The government needs to invest about $15 billion per year to maintain current production (2.4 million bpd), and mounting problems will probably lead to a decline of 100,000-150,000 bpd this year, barring a meaningful recovery in oil prices or fresh loans from China in the second half of the year, scarce foreign exchange will probably force the state to default later this year, most likely in the fourth quarter.

3. Jake Nelson:

   Our interstate infrastructure is crumbling. We can't afford to even fill potholes and repair bridges, which is why Vision Zero is so important because we have scarce resources and we need to invest wisely.

4. Elbert Hubbard:

   There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.

5. Andrea Canaan:

   It's as if we think liberation a fixed quantity, that there is only so much to go around. That an individual or community is liberated at the expense of another When we view liberation as a scarce resource, something only a precious few of us can have, we stifle our potential, our creativity, our genius for living, learning and growing.