scarce

scarce 主要表示某物数量少、难以找到，因而不足以满足需要；也可作古旧或文学用法的副词，表示“几乎不、勉强才”，还可作为英语姓氏。

💡 记忆钩子

把 scarce 想成“货架上东西稀稀拉拉”：东西少、难找到，就是“稀缺”；如果说资源 scarce in 某处，就是“供应不足”；进一步把动作压缩到只差一点完成，古旧副词用法就表示“勉强才、几乎不”。

📝 学习建议

先掌握形容词的两个常用方向：先说某物“很难找到”，再说某地或某人“缺少某物”。
不要把 scarce 只理解成“稀有而且珍贵”；它强调数量少或供应不足，普通的食物、资源和机会也可以用它。
副词用法较古旧，现代学习和阅读中优先掌握形容词用法。

📖 中文释义

adj

core 稀少；难找到

📖 某物数量很少，已经不容易找到；它把注意力放在“供应变少、寻找困难”上，而不一定表示这种东西本身珍贵。

💡 常用“名词 + be scarce”或“scarce + 名词”，例如“机会很少”可以说“机会 scarce”。这个词可修饰食物、住房、工作机会等具体或抽象事物，通常比单纯说“少”更强调难以获得。中文里容易把它误解成“罕见”，但在实际语境中它也常表示市场上暂时供应不足。

Fresh water is scarce on the island.

这个岛上淡水很少。

Affordable apartments are scarce in the city center.

市中心价格能负担得起的公寓很难找到。
common 缺少；供应不足

📖 强调某个地方、系统或计划没有足够的某种东西来满足需要，重点是“供给不够”。

💡 常用句型是“be scarce in + 名词”或“scarce + 名词”，例如“某地缺少资源”。它适合说明整体供给状况，常见于新闻、报告和正式讨论；若只是说手头暂时没有某物，通常不用这个词。注意它描述的是资源或供应的不足，不等于说某人不愿意提供。

The region is scarce in medical supplies after the storm.

暴风雨过后，这个地区医疗物资短缺。

scarcer comparative scarcest superlative

adv

rare 几乎不；勉强才

📖 把“稀少”的核心概念延伸到动作上，表示动作发生得非常少，或只是勉强发生。

💡 常见于古典或文学文本中的“scarce + 动词”结构，表示“刚一……就……”或“几乎没有……”。现代口语和普通写作中不建议主动使用，阅读时根据上下文把它理解为“几乎不”即可。

archaic literary not-comparable

name

rare 姓氏

📖 Scarce 也可作为英语姓氏使用，此时表示人的家族姓，而不是“稀少”的意思。

💡 通常放在名字之后，按英语姓名格式书写并首字母大写。看到它出现在人物名单、署名或人名中时，不要把它当作句子的形容词来翻译。

Scarces plural

📘 英文释义 (WordNet) 共 3 组

only a very short time before; ; ; - W.B.Yeats

同义词集: barely hardly just scarcely scarce

we hardly knew them

had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open

would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave

almost not; ; ; ; ;

同义词集: hardly scarcely barely scarce

he hardly ever goes fishing

he was scarce sixteen years old

they scarcely ever used the emergency generator

I can hardly hear what she is saying

she barely seemed to notice him

we were so far back in the theater, we could barely read the subtitles

deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand

同义词集: scarce

fresh vegetables were scarce during the drought

反义: abundant 近似: rare, tight 参见: meager, meagerly, meagre, scrimpy, stingy

🌳 词源

源自中古英语，经过古北法语词形演变而来，最初与“节省、吝啬、贫乏”有关；具体更早来源仍不确定。

From Middle English scars, scarse, from Old Northern French scars, escars ("sparing, niggard, parsimonious, miserly, poor"; > French échars, Medieval Latin scarsus (“diminished, reduced”)), of uncertain origin. One theory is that it derives originally from a Late Latin *scarpsus, *excarpsus, a participle form of *excarpere (“take out”), from Latin ex- + carpere; yet the sense evolution is difficult to trace. Compare Middle Dutch schaers (“scarce”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”). The standard pronunciation having the /ɛə(ɹ)/ vowel instead of expected /ɑː(ɹ)/ is due to a tendency for Old and Middle French preconsonantal /ar/ to be borrowed as Middle English /aːr/ that only survives in this word and dace in the modern standard, but is more frequent in Early Modern English and traditional dialects; compare Scots gairden (“garden”), lairge (“large”).

🔄 变式

scarcer compar Scarces plural scarcest superl

🏷 单词标签 & 词根