Synonyms: Few

A dearth is an insufficient amount of something, often food. The word comes from the Middle English derþe, which has roots in the Old Norse dýrð, meaning "glory" or "costly."

A drought is a long period with little or no rain. Drought can also describe a long period without something, like a sports team's losing streak.

Famine describes a severe shortage of food.

Sufficient means "enough." Insufficient means the opposite.

Lack is both a noun and a verb. If you lack something, like patience, then you don't have patience. The lack of something is when there's an absence. You could say "The lack of donuts at this meeting is a problem!"

Lean can describe a thin person, and it can also describe a time when someone has very little money or food.

Meager comes from the French maigre, meaning "thin." So it's a synonym for lean.

Paucity is a synonym for scarcity and shortage. Paucus means "few" in Latin.

Scant is a synonym for dearth and scarce.

Scarce means rare, or hard to come by.

If you skimp on something, say salad dressing, then you're not pouring enough on and your salad will be dry and not have much flavor.

Where paucity is a shortage, not enough, sparsity describes a few things spread around a large area: like a desert with just a handful of scrubby trees in it.