Scarce vs Common - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between scarce and common

is that scarce is uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand while common is mutual; shared by more than one.

As an adverb scarce

is scarcely, only just.

As a noun common is

mutual good, shared by more than one.

As a verb common is

(obsolete) to communicate (something).

scarce

English

(wikipedia scarce)

Adjective

(er)

Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.

* (John Locke)

You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen one fifth in value.

* , chapter=3

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}

Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of .

* (John Milton)

A region scarce of prey.

Adverb

(-)

Scarcely, only just.

* Milton

With a scarce well-lighted flame.

* 1854 , (Edgar Allen Poe), (The Raven):

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure that I heard you [...].

* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4:

Yet had I scarce set foot in the passage when I stopped, remembering how once already this same evening I had played the coward, and run home scared with my own fears.

* 1931 , William Faulkner, Sanctuary , Vintage 1993, p. 122:

Upon the barred and slitted wall the splotched shadow of the heaven tree shuddered and pulsed monstrously in scarce any wind.

Anagrams

common

English

(wikipedia common)

Adjective

(en-adj)

Mutual; shared by more than one.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katie L. Burke

, title= In the News , volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.}}

Found in large numbers or in a large quantity.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=Lee A. Groat, title=Gemstones

, volume=100, issue=2, page=128, magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)}}

Simple, ordinary or vulgar.

* Washington Irving

the honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life

* Shakespeare

This fact was infamous / And ill beseeming any common man, / Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.

* A. Murphy

above the vulgar flight of common souls

She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.

(grammar) In some languages, particularly Germanic languages, of the gender originating from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine categories of nouns.

Of or pertaining to uncapitalized nouns in English, i.e., common nouns vs. proper nouns.

Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal, i.e., common name vs. scientific name.

(obsolete) Profane; polluted.

* Bible, Acts x. 15

What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common .

(obsolete) Given to lewd habits; prostitute.

* L'Estrange

a dame who herself was common

Synonyms

* (mutual ): mutual, shared * (usual ): normal, ordinary, standard, usual * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): widespread * See also

Antonyms

* (mutual ): personal, individual * (usual ): rare, unusual, uncommon * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): few and far between, rare, uncommon

Noun

(en noun)

Mutual good, shared by more than one.

A tract of land in common ownership; common land.

* {{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)

, title= The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common .}}

The people; the community.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

the weal o' the common

(label) The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To communicate (something).

* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans, Bible , Luke XXII:

Then entred Satan into Judas, whose syr name was iscariot (which was of the nombre off the twelve) and he went his waye, and commened with the hye prestes and officers, how he wolde betraye hym vnto them.

(obsolete) To converse, talk.

* , II.ix:

So long as Guyon with her commoned , / Vnto the ground she cast her modest eye [...].

* Grafton

Embassadors were sent upon both parts, and divers means of entreaty were commoned of.

(obsolete) To have sex.

(obsolete) To participate.

(Sir Thomas More)

(obsolete) To have a joint right with others in common ground.

(Johnson)

(obsolete) To board together; to eat at a table in common.

Derived terms

* common name * commonality * common dolphin * commoner * common gender * the common good * common noun * common-or-garden * commonplace * commons * common radish * commonsense * common touch * House of Commons * in common

Statistics

* 1000 English basic words