American English pronunciation
How to pronounce scarce
IPA transcription: [s'kɛɹs]
Hear “scarce” pronounced
[s'kɛɹs]
Quality: 0.98
[s'kɛɹs]
Quality: 0.97
[s'kɛɹs]
Quality: 0.84
Adjective
-
deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand
“fresh vegetables were scarce during the drought”
Adverb
-
only a very short time before; ; ; ; ; - W.B.Yeats
“they could barely hear the speaker”
“we hardly knew them”
“just missed being hit”
“had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open”
“would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave”
Usage examples
- He was so very sorry for me that he could scarcely speak.
- Extinct Mascouten was most likely another dialect, though it is scarcely attested.
- Paper is scarce, so write with much care.
- Tail scarcely compressed.
- I should scarcely have known you: you look like a lady now.
- They were by this time scarcely on speaking terms.
- In half an hour’s time a figure came out that I scarcely recognized.
- Paper is scarce, so write with much care.
- Large homes were subdivided into small apartments and city services were scarce.
- Data about them is extremely scarce and is usually limited to few brief sentences.