Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell deficiency

hear itde·fi·cien·cy/dɪ'fɪʃənsi/nounAcademic

What it means: A lack of something necessary or important.

In a sentence: The plant had a deficiency of sunlight, so it didn't grow very tall.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear, and the order of ie. Often misspelled as deficency or deficiancy.

Same family: deficient, deficit, insufficiency, shortage, lack. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Deficiency comes from Latin 'deficientia', meaning 'a failing' or 'a lack,' from the verb 'deficere' (to fail, to be lacking). It is closely related to the word 'deficit,' which we now often use for budget and money shortages.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

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