Paltry vs Paucity - What's the difference?
paltry | paucity |
trashy, trivial, of little value
meager; worthless; pitiful; trifling
Fewness in number; too few.
* 1915 , , The Golden Slipper , problem 7:
* 2006 , Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, "
A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.
* 1898 , , "At the Appetite-Cure":
* 1915 , , Michael O'Halloran , ch. 12:
As an adjective paltry
is trashy, trivial, of little value.As a noun paucity is
fewness in number; too few.paltry
English
Alternative forms
* (l), (l), (l)Adjective
(er)- This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.
- She made some paltry excuse and left.
- Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?
- Student grants these days are paltry , and many students have to take out loans.
Usage notes
* Nouns to which "paltry" is often applied: sum, rate, amount, number, price, salary, wages, fellow, pay, excuse, income, gain, compensation.Anagrams
* *paucity
English
Noun
- But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves.
Uncle Sam Wants You," Time , 13 July:
- Your tax refund might be late, owing to a paucity of number crunchers.
- Now came shipwrecks and life in open boats, with the usual paucity of food.
- Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest.