Shortage

Origin

short + -age

Noun

1. A lack or deficiency.
2. Not enough, not sufficient.
• 2013-08-03, Yesterday’s fuel, 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....It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

Antonyms

• glut
• mountain (as in butter mountain)

Related terms

• outage