scarce

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• Received-Pronunciation: /ˈskɛəs/
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• General-American: /ˈskɛɚs/
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• US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• Australian: /skeːs/
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• New-Zealand: /skeəs/ without the cheer–chair merger
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• /skiəs/ New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
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• Scotland: /skeɹs/
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• /skɜː(ɹ)s/ Lancashire, fair–fur merger
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• nonstandard: /skɑː(ɹ)s/
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• /ˈskeɪs/ see scace
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• rhymes with -ɛə(ɹ)s
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• CMU ARPABET: S K EH1 R S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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From Middle English scars, scarse, from Old Northern French scars, escars ("sparing, niggard, parsimonious, miserly, poor"; > French échars, Medieval Latin scarsus (“diminished, reduced”)), of uncertain origin. One theory is that it derives originally from a Late Latin *scarpsus, *excarpsus, a participle form of *excarpere (“take out”), from Latin ex- + carpere; yet the sense evolution is difficult to trace. Compare Middle Dutch schaers (“scarce”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”). The standard pronunciation having the /ɛə(ɹ)/ vowel instead of expected /ɑː(ɹ)/ is due to a tendency for Old and Middle French preconsonantal /ar/ to be borrowed as Middle English /aːr/ that only survives in this word and dace in the modern standard, but is more frequent in Early Modern English and traditional dialects; compare Scots gairden (“garden”), lairge (“large”).

55 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: نَادِر (nādir) — rare, in low supply
• Azerbaijani: qıt — rare, in low supply
• Azerbaijani: qəhət — rare, in low supply
• Central Bikol: ipo — rare, in low supply
• Bulgarian: оскъден (oskǎden) — rare, in low supply
• Bulgarian: недостатъчен (nedostatǎčen) — rare, in low supply
• Catalan: escàs — rare, in low supply
• Chinese Mandarin: 缺乏的 (quēfá de) — rare, in low supply
• Czech: vzácný — rare, in low supply
• Czech: nedostatkový — rare, in low supply
• Danish: knap — rare, in low supply
• Dutch: schaars — rare, in low supply
• Esperanto: malabunda — rare, in low supply
• Estonian: napp — rare, in low supply
• Finnish: harvinainen — rare, in low supply
• Finnish: riittämätön — rare, in low supply
• Finnish: niukka — rare, in low supply
• French: rare — rare, in low supply
• Galician: escaso — rare, in low supply
• German: spärlich — rare, in low supply
• Ancient Greek: σπάνιος (spánios) — rare, in low supply
• Hungarian: ritka — rare, in low supply
• Hungarian: gyér — rare, in low supply
• Ido: skarsa — rare, in low supply
• Indonesian: langka — rare, in low supply
• Irish: tearc — rare, in low supply
• Italian: scarso — rare, in low supply
• Japanese: 稀 (mare) — rare, in low supply
• Japanese: 珍しい (mezurashi) — rare, in low supply
• Korean: 드문 (deumun) — rare, in low supply
• Latvian: trūcīgs — rare, in low supply
• Macedonian: оскуден (oskuden) — rare, in low supply
• Māori: onge — rare, in low supply
• Māori: ongeonge — rare, in low supply
• Māori: mōmōhanga — rare, in low supply
• Māori: mōtī — rare, in low supply
• Middle English: scars — rare, in low supply
• Navajo: bídin hóyééʼ — rare, in low supply
• Persian: ناکافی (nâkâfi) — rare, in low supply
• Persian: کمیاب (kamyâb) — rare, in low supply
• Persian: نادر (nâder) — rare, in low supply
• Persian: اندک — rare, in low supply
• Polish: skąpy — rare, in low supply
• Polish: ubogi — rare, in low supply
• Polish: nieobfity — rare, in low supply
• Portuguese: escasso — rare, in low supply
• Russian: недоста́точный (nedostátočnyj) — rare, in low supply
• Russian: ску́дный (skúdnyj) — rare, in low supply
• Scottish Gaelic: gann — rare, in low supply
• Scottish Gaelic: ainneamh — rare, in low supply
• Spanish: escaso — rare, in low supply
• Swahili: nadra — rare, in low supply
• Swedish: knapp — rare, in low supply
• Tagalog: uyak — rare, in low supply
• Turkish: nadir — rare, in low supply