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WordNet 3.0Copyright Princeton University
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n. - An acute insufficiency. Or, a situation in which there is not enough of something that people need.

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Usage examples (35)
  • Part of the problem today is that we have a surplus of simple answers and a shortage of simple problems.
  • I think the "shortage" is actually more of just a price increase.
  • To suggest that there will be a shortage is a self fulfilling prophesy, if others believe you.
  • Regents said they had no choice but to approve the increase, given what they called a shortage of resources to pay for higher education.
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The Open Dictionary of English is a collaborative project, based on Open Source materials, LearnThat resources, and partner APIs.
We give special thanks to our LearnThat volunteers, as well as Princeton University and Wiktionary for their Open Source word data. We're also grateful for the support given by Google, Wordnik.com, Dictionary.com, Stands4.com and YouTube, OEDILF.com, Kylescholz.com, Best-Practice.com, Forvo.com, as well as the generous Creative Commons community.