Deficiency, n.; pl. Deficiencies.
Etymology: [See Deficient.]
The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect. "A deficiencyof blood." Arbuthnot. [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. Buckle. Deficiency of a curve (Geom.), the amount by which the number of double points on a curve is short of the maximum for curves of the same degree.
Shades of meaning
Fernald lists deficiency only as an antonym, under excess.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.
Synonyms
none given