What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Dearth vs Scanty - What's the difference?

dearth | scanty |

As a noun dearth

is a period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.

As an adjective scanty is

somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.

dearth

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (rfc-sense) A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
  • (by extension) Scarcity; a lack or short supply.
  • * 1608 , William Shakespeare, King Lear :
  • I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth , dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
  • *
  • (obsolete) Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * (period when food is rare) famine, shortage * (scarcity) paucity, scarcity

    Anagrams

    * * *

    scanty

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1864–1865, author=Charles Dickens, title=
  • , passage=Present on the table, one scanty' pot of tea, one '''scanty''' loaf, two '''scanty''' pats of butter, two ' scanty rashers of bacon, two pitiful eggs, and an abundance of handsome china bought a secondhand bargain.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1979, author=by B. Jonson, title=
  • , passage=Traditions older than paleoarctic, as scanty as the evidence may be, show clearly that colonization of Alberta and even as far north as southern Alaska came from the south.}}
  • Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.
  • * I. Watts.
  • In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.

    Derived terms

    * scantily * scantiness

    See also

    * meagre * scant * slender * insufficient * deficient * scarce