lack

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The state of not having something, or not having enough of it.

   There is a serious lack of insight into the problem.

2. 2
   verb

   To not have something, or to not have enough of it.

   This soup lacks salt.

Common collocations

• lack experience Verb + noun
• lack grace Verb + noun

From Middle English lack, lakke, lak, from Old English *læc (“deficiency, lack, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak, from Proto-Germanic *laką, *lakaz (“slackness”), from Proto-Germanic *lakaz (“limp, slack, loose, low”), related to *lak(k)ōną (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Lak (“lack”), Middle Low German lack, lak (“lack”), Dutch lak (“lack, deficiency, calumny”), Icelandic lakur (“lacking”). Related also to Middle Dutch laken (“to blame, lack”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English carence (“absence, lack”), from Old French carence…

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