Deficient

Synonyms for "deficient" (133 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (27)

inadequate insufficient absent adulterated amateurish amiss arrested bad base blemished botched bungling callow clumsy damaged defective destitute devoid embryonic erroneous

Show 4 more words

exceptional failing fallible faulty

Adjective(3 words)

lean threadbare dismal

Strong matches (40)

feeble-minded flawed found wanting half assed half-assed haphazard hit-and-miss hit-or-miss hopeless hypoplastic immature impaired imperfect imprecise impure in arrear in arrears in default in short supply in want of

Show 16 more words

inaccurate incompetent incomplete inexact infant inferior infrequent injured lacking lean little makeshift maladroit marred meager meagre

Adjective(1 words)

few and far between

Adjective(3 words)

inferior insufficient lacking

Related words (66)

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

6 relation types

Synonyms

2 entries

insufficient substandard

Related terms

6 entries

defect defection defective defector deficiency deficit

derived

19 entries

bideficient biodeficient deficient number deficient-demand unemployment deficiently deficientness demand-deficient unemployment haplodeficient hyperdeficient immunodeficient indeficient mental deficient multideficient nondeficient phosphodeficient pseudodeficient

Showing 16 of 19 words.

has context

1 entries

mathematics

related to

12 entries

amount defect defection defective defector deficiency deficit essential in inadequate insufficient lack

similar

19 entries

depleted inadequate jejune lean light low meager meagerly meagre nonstandard poor scant scrimpy short shy

Showing 16 of 19 words.

Translations

46 translations across 21 languages.

Ancient Greek

1 entries

λείπομαι adj (lacking something essential)

Bulgarian

4 entries

недостатъчен adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
недостигащ adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
несъвършен adj (lacking something essential)
с недостатъци adj (lacking something essential)

Catalan

2 entries

deficient adj (lacking something essential)
deficient adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Danish

1 entries

mangelfuld adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Dutch

2 entries

gebrekkig adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
tekortschietend adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Finnish

2 entries

puutteellinen adj (lacking something essential)
riittämätön adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Galician

1 entries

deficiente adj (lacking something essential)

German

2 entries

defizient adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
mangelhaft adj (lacking something essential)

Indonesian

2 entries

defisien adj (lacking something essential)
defisien adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Irish

3 entries

díothach adj (lacking something essential)
easpach adj (lacking something essential)
uireasach adj (lacking something essential)

Italian

1 entries

deficiente adj (lacking something essential)

Māori

4 entries

huka adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
pahara adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
pūhungahunga adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
takarepa adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Ottoman Turkish

4 entries

اكسیك adj (lacking something essential)
اكسیك adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
نقصان adj (lacking something essential)
نقصان adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Portuguese

1 entries

deficiente adj (lacking something essential)

Romanian

3 entries

deficient adj (lacking something essential)
deficient adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
insuficient adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Sanskrit

2 entries

ऊन adj (lacking something essential)
ऊन adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Spanish

2 entries

deficiente adj (lacking something essential)
deficiente adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Swedish

1 entries

bristfällig adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Turkish

3 entries

az adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
eksik adj (lacking something essential)
eksik adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)

Ukrainian

4 entries

недоскона́лий adj (lacking something essential)
недоста́тній adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
непо́вний adj (insufficient or inadequate in amount)
позба́влений adj (lacking something essential)

Welsh

1 entries

diffygiol adj (lacking something essential)

Sample sentences

13 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

The young engineer was deficient in experience.

Source: tatoeba (46806)

The structure is deficient in harmony.

Source: tatoeba (59440)

My car is deficient in horsepower.

Source: tatoeba (251093)

Tom's diet is deficient in protein.

Source: tatoeba (1023856)

Showing 4 of 13 available sentences.

More for "deficient"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.