What Does Deficient Mean?
The word deficient is an adjective and ahs its origin in Latin. It is taken from the word deficere which means ‘to fail or be wanting’. The present participle of the word deficere was dēficiēns, dēficient. Deficient generally means ‘lacking an important quality or essential element’. For example: he was deficient in common sense. In this sentence, he is said to be lacking common sense. Another example: she was deficient in leadership skills. Here, deficient indicates that she did not possess leadership skills. When something is said to be deficient in something, it is not present in adequate or sufficient amount or degree. Fro example: the food was deficient in nutrition. In this sentence, deficient conveys that the food was not good enough in nutritive value and did not provide adequate nutrition. Defective, incomplete, lacking, wanting, inadequate, insufficient, scarce, short, poor and undersupplied are some of the words that could be used for deficient.
