scanty
adjective
Synonyms
- exiguous
- hand-to-mouth
- light
- meager
- meagre
- niggardly
- poor
- scant
- scarce
- skimp
- skimpy
- slender
- slim
- spare
- sparing
- sparse
- stingy
Example Sentences
1843, 16 Apr. 2020 When evidence was scanty, or when misconduct needed to be covered up, police routinely perjured themselves to make sure case outcomes turned out as desired. Patrick Blanchfield, The New Republic, 31 Mar. 2020 Given the scale at which the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe, India’s scanty testing network might prove to be a terrible nightmare soon. Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz India, 17 Mar. 2020 Japanese edible chrysanthemum: Data is scanty on other species that are also commonly called daisies, but one with daisylike flowers is definitely edible: Japanese edible chrysanthemum, a.k.a., shungiku or tong ho. Pam Peirce, SFChronicle.com, 7 Feb. 2020 In the sunshine outside a large convention center in the southern Spanish city of Estepona, some very fit-looking people in scanty clothing applied fake tans and rehearsed statuesque poses. Washington Post, 16 Nov. 2019 Falling production This year has been the first in nearly a century when India’s overall monsoon rainfall has exceeded its average levels despite a scanty start to the season in June. Kuwar Singh, Quartz India, 3 Oct. 2019 The Associated Press has not verified who caused the woman’s injury, and photographic evidence has been scanty. Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2019 The city's reservoirs and lakes are parched and its wells have run dry after two years of scanty rains here. Anchorage Daily News, 2 July 2019 See More Word History
English dialect scant scanty supply, from Middle English, from Old Norse skamt, from neuter of skammr short
1600, in the meaning defined above
Kids Definition
scanty
adjective
scanty
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- sparse
- scarce
- scant
- meager
- skimpy
- poor
- lacking
- meagre
- exiguous
- light
- insufficient
- slender
- sparing
- inadequate
- stingy
- small
- niggardly
- lowest
- short
- spare
- skimp
- slim
- deficient
- mere
- hand-to-mouth
- minimal
- thin
- thin on the ground
- least
- wanting
- slightest
- sterile
- bare
- bare-bones
- littlest
- slight
- unfruitful
- barren
- unproductive
- infertile
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- ample
- adequate
- abundant
- copious
- sufficient
- plentiful
- satisfactory
- bountiful
- generous
- enough
- liberal
- rich
- fertile
- tolerable
- plenteous
- fruitful
- prolific
- luxuriant
- fat
- lavish
- extra
- fecund
- bursting
- excess
- flourishing
- surplus
- thriving
- proliferative
- teeming
- blooming
- swarming
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of scanty are meager, scant, skimpy, spare, and sparse. While all these words mean "falling short of what is normal, necessary, or desirable," scanty stresses insufficiency in amount, quantity, or extent.
The synonyms meager and scanty are sometimes interchangeable, but meager implies the absence of elements, qualities, or numbers necessary to a thing's richness, substance, or potency.
In some situations, the words scant and scanty are roughly equivalent. However, scant suggests a falling short of what is desired or desirable rather than of what is essential.
The words skimpy and scanty can be used in similar contexts, but skimpy usually suggests niggardliness or penury as the cause of the deficiency.
The words spare and scanty are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, spare may suggest a slight falling short of adequacy or merely an absence of superfluity.
Although the words sparse and scanty have much in common, sparse implies a thin scattering of units.