Nearby Words
| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | not enough; lacking |
| Synonyms: | bereft, defective, deficient, destitute, devoid, drained, dry, failing, faulty, imperfect, inadequate, incapable, incommensurate, incompetent, incomplete, infrequent, meager, minus, out of, poor, rare, scant, scarce, short, short of, shy, thin*, too little too late, unample, unfinished, unfitted, unqualified, unsatisfactory, wanting |
| Antonyms: | adequate, ample, enough, sufficient |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | lacking |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | wanting, deficient |
| Synonyms: | can't cut it, coming up short, defective, deprived of, flawed, impaired, inadequate, incomplete, minus, missing, needed, needing, not hacking it, not making it, sans, short, without |
| Antonyms: | abundant, enough, having, profuse, sufficient |
| Main Entry: | less |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | smaller, inferior |
| Synonyms: | beneath, declined, deficient, depressed, diminished, excepting, fewer, lacking, lesser, limited, lower, minor, minus, negative, not as great, reduced, secondary, shortened, shorter, slighter, subordinate, subtracting, unsubstantial, without |
| Notes: | fewer means a smaller number of individual things and less means a small quantity of something. A traditional rule of English usage holds that less should be used only of uncountable things, that is, things that can be measured but not counted as discrete units. Thus "less electricity," "less than a quart, " "less doubt." Fewer, on the other hand, should be used only of things that can be counted: "fewer people," "fewer cars." In actual usage, fewer almost always adheres to the traditional rule; the problem is that less is often used with countable things. generally, less applies to quantity while fewer applies to number; the traditional rule says that you should use fewer for things that can be counted (fewer than four players) but less with mass terms for things of measurable extent (less paper, less than a gallon of paint) |
| Antonyms: | bigger, more, superior |
| Main Entry: | liability |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | burden, debt |
| Synonyms: | IOU, account, arrear, arrearage, bad news, baggage, balance, bite*, chance, chit, contingency, contract, damage, debit, disadvantage, drag*, drawback, due*, encumbrance, handicap, hindrance, impediment, inconvenience, indebtedness, indebtment, involvement, lease, loan, millstone, minus, misfortune, mortgage, nuisance, obligation, onus, pledge, possibility, remainder, responsibility, tab |
| Antonyms: | asset |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | lost |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | missing, off-track |
| Synonyms: | absent, adrift, astray, at sea, cast away, disappeared, disoriented, down the drain, fallen between cracks, forfeit, forfeited, gone, gone astray, hidden, invisible, irrecoverable, irretrievable, irrevocable, kiss goodbye, lacking, minus, mislaid, misplaced, missed, nowhere to be found, obscured, off-course, out the window, strayed, unredeemed, vanished, wandering, wayward, without |
| Antonyms: | accomplishing, found, successful, winning |
| Main Entry: | minor |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | insignificant, small |
| Synonyms: | accessory, below the mark, bush-league, casual, dependent, dinky, inconsequential, inconsiderable, inferior, junior, lesser, light, low, minus, negligible, paltry, petty, piddling, second-string, secondary, slight, small-fry, small-time, smaller, subordinate, subsidiary, tacky, trifling, trivial, two-bit, unimportant, younger |
| Antonyms: | adult, greater, large, major, significant |
| Main Entry: | vacuous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | empty; unintelligent |
| Synonyms: | airheaded, birdbrained, blank, drained, dull, dumb, emptied, foolish, half-baked, inane, lamebrained, minus, shallow, silly*, stupid, superficial, uncomprehending, unreasoning, vacant, void |
| Notes: | vacant pertains mainly to things (vacant house) while vacuous pertains mainly to the absence or near absence of meaning or intelligence (vacuous expression) |
| Antonyms: | aware, filled, full, intelligent |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | wanting |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | lacking, inadequate |
| Synonyms: | absent, away, bankrupt, bereft, burned out, cooked, cut off, defective, deficient, deprived, destitute, devoid, disappointing, empty, failing, faulty, gone, half-baked, imperfect, in default, incomplete, inferior, less, minus, missing, needed, not good enough, not up to par, omitted, out of gas, patchy, poor, scant, scanty, scarce, short, shy, sketchy, substandard, too little too late, unfulfilled, unsound |
| Antonyms: | adequate, perfect, satisfactory, sufficient |
| Main Entry: | minor-league |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | minor |
| Synonyms: | accessory, below the mark, bush-league, casual, dependent, dinky, inconsequential, inconsiderable, inferior, junior, lesser, light, low, lower, minus, negligible, paltry, petty, piddling, second-string, secondary, slight, small, small-fry, small-time, smaller, subaltern, subordinate, subsidiary, tacky, trifling, trivial, two-bit, under, unimportant, younger |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
