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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dearth.

A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɜːθ/Received-Pronunciation/dɝθ/US/dɜːf/

  1. A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.

    countable · uncountable

  2. Scarcity; a lack or short supply.

    broadly · countable · uncountable

  3. Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

First attested at least as early as the late 1300s, and appearing in Tyndale’s Pentateuch (1530) as well as the Coverdale Bible (1535). From Middle English derth, derthe, derþe, probably from Old English *dīerþ, *dīerþu, from Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō (“costliness, preciousness, honour”); corresponding to dear + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Old Saxon diuriða (“glory, honour; preciousness”), West Frisian djoerte (“love, dearness, value, worth”), Dutch duurte (“dearness; scarcity, dearth”), Icelandic dýrð (“honour, glory”).

verb/dɜːθ/Received-Pronunciation/dɝθ/US/dɜːf/

  1. To cause or produce a scarcity in something.

    dated · obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

First attested at least as early as the late 1300s, and appearing in Tyndale’s Pentateuch (1530) as well as the Coverdale Bible (1535). From Middle English derth, derthe, derþe, probably from Old English *dīerþ, *dīerþu, from Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō (“costliness, preciousness, honour”); corresponding to dear + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Old Saxon diuriða (“glory, honour; preciousness”), West Frisian djoerte (“love, dearness, value, worth”), Dutch duurte (“dearness; scarcity, dearth”), Icelandic dýrð (“honour, glory”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.