noun, plural de·fi·cien·cies.
- the state of being deficient; lack; incompleteness; insufficiency.
- the amount lacked; a deficit.
noun plural -cies
- the state or quality of being deficient
- a lack or insufficiency; shortage
- another word for deficit
- biology the absence of a gene or a region of a chromosome normally present
1630s, from deficience (mid-15c.) + -cy; or from Late Latin deficientia, from deficientem (see deficient).
n.
- A lack or shortage of something essential to health; an insufficiency.