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Shortage vs Decrease - What's the difference?

shortage | decrease |

As nouns the difference between shortage and decrease

is that shortage is a lack or deficiency; an insufficient amount while decrease is an amount by which a quantity is decreased.

As a verb decrease is

of a quantity, to become smaller.

shortage

English

Noun

(wikipedia shortage) (en noun)
  • A lack or deficiency; an insufficient amount.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.

    Antonyms

    * glut * mountain (as in butter mountain)

    Related terms

    * outage

    See also

    * drought * famine * ration * rationing

    decrease

    English

    Verb

    (decreas)
  • Of a quantity, to become smaller.
  • To make (a quantity) smaller.

    • Synonyms

    * (become smaller) drop, fall, go down, plummet (rapidly), plunge (rapidly), reduce, shrink, sink * (make smaller) abate, cut, decrement, lower, reduce

    Antonyms

    * (become larger) go up, grow, increase, rise, soar (rapidly), shoot up (rapidly) * (make larger) increase, increment, raise, up (informal)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An amount by which a quantity is decreased.
  • (knitting) A reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch. See .

    • Synonyms

    * (amount by which a quantity is decreased) cut, decrement, drop, fall, loss, lowering, reduction, shrinkage

    Antonyms

    * (amount by which a quantity is decreased) gain, increase, increment, raise , rise

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs English heteronyms 1000 English basic words