What does meagerness mean?
Meagerness names the condition of being insufficient, scarce, or inadequately supplied. It is especially associated with a lack of food, money, or other necessities, as in references to economic meagerness or the meagerness of available resources, but it can also describe thinness or sparseness. The word tends to sound formal and carries a negative implication: what is meager is not merely smaller than expected but plainly inadequate to meet a need. Derived from the adjective meager, whose spelling varies between American and British English, it is useful when emphasizing the quality or condition of deficiency rather than simply describing a shortage. The word's history gives it a vivid physical association, since its ancestor referred literally to thinness before extending to paucity and poverty.
nounThe quality of being meager, especially a lack of sufficient food, money, or other necessary resources. It can also refer to thinness or a sparse, inadequate quantity.
- Scarcity or insufficiency, especially of food, money, or resources.
- The quality of being thin, lean, or sparse.
"The family's meagerness made it difficult to provide a nutritious meal every day."
"The report highlighted the meagerness of medical care in the region."
"She complained about the meagerness of the meal, which consisted only of bread and tea."
The plural is grammatically possible but rare; the noun is ordinarily used in the singular or as an uncountable abstract noun.
"The novel contrasts the wealth of the city with the meagrenesses of rural life."
Meagerness began in a word that literally meant "thin": the word travels from Latin macer through Old French maigre into modern English.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does meagerness come from?
The word comes through Old French maigre from Latin macer, meaning "thin" or "lean." Latin macer also conveyed the ideas of poor, scanty, or insufficient, so its later English sense developed naturally from physical thinness to material scarcity. Its relatives include forms such as emaciate and macerate, which continue the same Latin root.
Related word forms
How meagerness is actually used
The noun is relatively uncommon in everyday speech and has a somewhat formal or literary tone. In modern usage it most often describes inadequate resources, provisions, or means.
Easily confused with meagerness
Meagerness is the noun naming the state of being meager, whereas meager is the adjective describing something insufficient or thin.