deficiency
de·fi·cien·cy/dɪˈfɪʃənsi/noun
deficiency is spelled D-E-F-I-C-I-E-N-C-Y: 10 letters and 4 syllables (de·fi·cien·cy). It appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, deficiency means “Inadequacy or incompleteness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of deficiency is deficiencies.
How many letters and syllables are in deficiency?
| Letters | 10: D-E-F-I-C-I-E-N-C-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: de·fi·cien·cy |
| In writing | 4.4 times per million words; the 12,216th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is deficiency?
Deficiency appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce deficiency?
- /dɪˈfɪʃənsi/
Deficiency has 4 syllables, split de·fi·cien·cy in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-deficiency.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of deficiency
- deficiencies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does deficiency mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Inadequacy or incompleteness.
- 2
An insufficiency, especially of something essential to health.
- 3
The amount by which the number of double points on a curve is short of the maximum for curves of the same degree.
- 4
The codimension of a linear system in the corresponding complete linear system.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Deficiency in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | déficience , carence |
| Portuguese | carência, deficiência, escassez, falta |
| German | Mangel |
| Spanish | deficiencia, déficit |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does deficiency come from?
From deficient + -cy. Compare Latin dēficientia.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).