lack
pronunciation
How to pronounce lack in British English:
UK [læk]
How to pronounce lack in American English:
US [læk]
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- Noun:
- the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable
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- Verb:
- be without
Word Origin
- lack
- lack: [12] The word lack is not known to have existed in Old English, although it is by no means impossible that it did. If it was a borrowing, a possible source would have been Middle Dutch lak ‘deficiency, fault’. This has been traced back to a prehistoric Germanic *lak-, a variant of which produced English leak.=> leak
- lack (n.)
- c. 1300, "absence, want; shortage, deficiency," perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *lac, or else borrowed from Middle Dutch lak "deficiency, fault;" in either case from Proto-Germanic *laka- (cognates: Old Frisian lek "disadvantage, damage," Old Norse lakr "lacking"), from PIE *leg- "to dribble, trickle" (see leak (v.)). Middle English also had lackless "without blame or fault."
- lack (v.)
- late 12c., perhaps from Middle Dutch laken "to be wanting," from lak (n.) "deficiency, fault," or an unrecorded native cognate word (see lack (n.)). Related: Lacked; lacking.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Designers often lack the requisite understanding .
- 2. But they lack the same policy options .
- 3. The villagers lack the capital to replant .
- 4. His quick wits compensate for his lack of brawn .
- 5. The problem was simply a lack of demand .