匮乏 (kuìfá)

匮乏 describes a state of serious insufficiency or shortage, suggesting that something essential is severely lacking and the shortage is causing hardship.

Meanings

[adjective] scarce, lacking, deprived, impoverished (in a specific resource)
[verb] to be short of, to lack severely

Example Sentences

战后，整个地区物资极为匮乏，居民生活十分艰苦。 Zhàn hòu, zhěnggè dìqū wùzī jí wéi kuìfá, jūmín shēnghuó shífēn jiānkǔ. After the war, the entire region was extremely short of supplies and residents' lives were very difficult.

创意匮乏是许多广告公司面临的共同困境。 Chuàngyì kuìfá shì xǔduō guǎnggào gōngsī miànlín de gòngtóng kùnjìng. Lack of creativity is a common predicament faced by many advertising companies.

长期营养匮乏会对儿童的身心发育造成不可逆的损害。 Chángqī yíngyǎng kuìfá huì duì értóng de shēnxīn fāyù zàochéng bù kě nì de sǔnhài. Long-term nutritional deficiency can cause irreversible damage to children's physical and mental development.

在信息匮乏的年代，人们主要通过书籍和报纸了解世界。 Zài xìnxī kuìfá de niándài, rénmen zhǔyào tōngguò shūjí hé bàozhǐ liǎojiě shìjiè. In an era of information scarcity, people mainly learned about the world through books and newspapers.

资金匮乏限制了这个非营利组织的发展规模。 Zījīn kuìfá xiànzhì le zhège fēi yínglì zǔzhī de fāzhǎn guīmó. Lack of funds has limited the scale of development of this non-profit organization.

贫困地区教育资源匮乏的问题迫切需要政府加以解决。 Pínkùn dìqū jiàoyù zīyuán kuìfá de wèntí pòqiē xūyào zhèngfǔ jiā yǐ jiějué. The problem of scarce educational resources in impoverished areas urgently needs to be addressed by the government.

Collocations

Collocation	Meaning
资源匮乏	resource scarcity
物资匮乏	shortage of supplies
营养匮乏	nutritional deficiency
创意匮乏	lack of creativity
极度匮乏	extreme scarcity
匮乏感	sense of deprivation

Usage Notes

匮乏 is stronger and more literary than 缺乏 (quēfá, to lack), which is the more common everyday word. 匮乏 implies a serious, often critical shortage that causes hardship, while 缺乏 simply means "to be lacking." In formal writing, academic texts, and literary contexts, 匮乏 is preferred when the severity of the shortage needs to be emphasized.

匮乏 can modify nouns directly: 物资匮乏的地区 (a region with scarce supplies). It is often used with abstract nouns: 精神匮乏 (spiritual emptiness), 创意匮乏 (lack of creativity).

Memory Hook

匮 is an archaic character for an empty box or depleted chest, and 乏 means "lacking/exhausted" -- 匮乏 is a chest that has been emptied and is now exhausted, the picture of a storehouse with nothing left inside.