lacks

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of lack.

   The proposal lacks the financial detail that investors expect.

   Her otherwise strong argument lacks any supporting evidence.

   Note

   A transitive, stative verb that takes its object directly: the proposal lacks detail, never lacks of detail. Because it describes a standing condition rather than an action, the simple present is its natural home. A separate intransitive use, lack for, means to be short of something and is the one that carries a preposition, as in she lacks for nothing.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of lack.

   Note

   Only the countable side of the noun can take a plural. A lack of funds stays singular, while lacks counts separate shortfalls one by one, a comparatively rare use. In older writing the same spelling can also stand for lakhs, through an archaic form of that word. The identical spelling serves the present-tense verb, so the grammar around it decides: the lacks in the plan versus the plan lacks.

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