deficit
Pluraldeficits
- 1The amount by which spending exceeds income, or the situation of such a shortfall, especially in government finances.
Like a bucket draining faster than it is being filled.
The federal budget deficit widened sharply during the recession.
Analysts warned that persistent deficits would erode investor confidence.
Similarshortfall
Oppositesurplus
Note
Public finance gives the word its most familiar job. A deficit measures one period's gap between outlays and revenue, which keeps it distinct from debt, the total that builds up over time. Its constant partner is budget, and its counterweight is the balanced budget, where public spending matches the taxes paid. The 1996 Contra Costa Times joke about Wall Street's "deficit-attention disorder" works only because the word is so fixed in political talk.
- 2A deficiency in amount or quality; a falling short or lack of what is required.
Like a glass filled only halfway when you needed it full.
The report identified a serious deficit in the company's safety procedures.
Sleep deficits accumulate over a busy work week and impair concentration.
Similardeficiency, shortfall, shortage, lack, gap
Note
Outside finance, the word works in plain description: a deficit in rainfall is simply less rain than a crop needed. It usually takes in before whatever falls short (a deficit in rainfall, a deficit in safety procedures), or the missing thing can come first, as in sleep deficit. English took it through French déficit from Latin dēficit, an origin it shares with the budget meaning.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from French déficit, which comes from the Latin dēficit.