lack

LAK/læk/

Plurallacks

Verblacks, lacking, lacked

7 meanings of lack

Practice

1
shortagenouncountable or uncountable
A shortage or absence of something desirable or necessary; a deficiency or want.
The project failed due to a lack of funding.
There was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm in the room.
UsageUsually followed by of: a lack of money, time or interest.
Similarshortage, absence, want, dearth, paucity
Oppositesurplus, glut, plethora
Note
The noun goes back to a Germanic word for "slackness," and the verb comes from a related Germanic form. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice plays the two against each other, asking that a man's lack of years not let him lack esteem.
2
not haveverbtransitive or intransitive
To be without something, or not to have enough of something that is needed or wanted (also lack for).
The proposal lacks the detail needed for approval.
Many rural areas lack reliable internet access.
UsageThe thing missing comes straight after it: she lacks confidence (not ~~incorrect: lacks of~~ confidence). lack for appears mostly after never or not.
3
hundred thousandnounarchaicMyanmarSouth Asia
Archaic form of lakh.
Note
An older spelling of lakh, the South Asian unit of one hundred thousand, and a trap for the modern reader. A lack of rupees meant a hundred thousand of them, not a shortage. Context settles it: this lack counts something and can follow a number, as in twenty lack, which the "absence" noun rarely does. Lakh is the spelling to use today.

Less common meanings

4
nounobsoletecountable or uncountable
A defect or failing; a moral or spiritual degeneracy of character.
Note
Modern readers will hear an absence, not a flaw, in almost any use of this obsolete meaning. Even the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) speaks of "my lack of detection," which reads naturally as the "absence" meaning.
5
be poorverbobsoleteintransitive
To be in want; to suffer poverty or privation.
Note
Here the verb stands entirely alone, with nothing named as missing; the want itself is the whole point. The King James Bible of 1611 has "the young lions do lack, and suffer hunger," where lack pairs with hunger as a state of need. Because the use is obsolete, a sentence like "she will never lack" now sounds scriptural or deliberately old-fashioned.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
The King James Bible contains the quoted words in Psalm 34:10. en.wikisource.org
In the biblical example, lack has no object and is paired with suffering hunger. en.wikisource.org
6
verbobsolete
To regard someone or something as falling short; to find fault with, speak ill of, or reproach them.
That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.
c. 1370, [William Langland], “[Passus II]”
Note
An obsolete verb of censure that shares its root with the everyday 'be without' verb: the Germanic ancestor meant both 'to reproach' and 'to be lacking'. William Langland's The Vision of Pierce Plowman (c. 1370–1390) says Mede the Maid 'ylakked my lemman', slandered my sweetheart. Today any reader would hear 'lacked' as 'went without', so keep this sense for reading older texts, not for writing.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
Lack historically had a sense meaning to blame or reproach. en.wikisource.org
The censure sense and the 'be without' sense share a Germanic ancestor with both meanings. en.wiktionary.org
William Langland wrote the work called The Vision of Pierce Plowman. en.wikipedia.org
First printed in 1550; the fourteenth-century dates concern composition. en.wikipedia.org
The poem says that Mede the Maid 'ylakked my lemman'. en.wikisource.org
The quotation means that Mede maligned the speaker's sweetheart. en.wikisource.org
7
verbslang
To be off one's guard; to be unaware or unprepared to defend oneself.

Use it in a sentence

Write your own sentence with lack, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.

Origins

Meanings 1, 4

From Middle English lak, from Old English *læc ("deficiency, lack, want"), from Proto-Germanic roots meaning "slackness" and "limp, slack, loose, low." It is related to words for blame or reproach, and has cognates in Dutch lak and Icelandic lakur ("lacking").

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

The noun derives through Middle English lak from reconstructed Old English *læc, meaning deficiency, lack, or want. en.wiktionary.org
Its ancestry includes a Proto-Germanic noun meaning slackness. en.wiktionary.org
Its ancestry includes a Proto-Germanic adjective meaning limp, slack, loose, or low. en.wiktionary.org
It is etymologically related to words meaning blame or reproach. en.wiktionary.org
Dutch lak and Icelandic lakur are cognates, and lakur means lacking. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 2, 5–6

From Middle English lacken, from Old English læccian ("to blame, criticize, lack"), from Proto-Germanic *lak(k)ōną ("to reproach, blame, be lacking"). It has cognates in Old Frisian lakia ("to contest, blame") and Dutch laken ("to blame, reproach").

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

The verb lack derives from Middle English lacken and Old English læccian, glossed as blame, criticize, or lack. en.wiktionary.org
The verb derives ultimately from reconstructed Proto-Germanic *lak(k)ōną, meaning reproach, blame, or be lacking. en.wiktionary.org
Old Frisian lakia, meaning contest or blame, is a cognate. en.wiktionary.org
Dutch laken, meaning blame or reproach, is a cognate. en.wiktionary.org