Definition

1. Noun:
   • An excess of liabilities over assets (usually over a certain period): A deficit is the amount by which money spent is greater than money received, typically within a defined timeframe like a fiscal year.
   • (Sports) The score by which a team or individual is losing: In competitive sports, a deficit is the number of points, goals, or runs a competitor is behind.
   • A deficiency or failure in neurological or mental functioning: This refers to a measurable impairment or shortfall in a specific cognitive or neurological capacity.
   • The property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required: A general shortfall or lack in quantity, quality, or a required amount.

Usage Examples

• Financial/Quantitative Shortfall:
  • Last year there was a serious budgetary deficit. (The government spent significantly more than it collected in revenue.)
  • The company is trying to reduce its trade deficit. (It aims to decrease the gap between the value of its imports and exports.)
• Sports:
  • The team overcame a 10-point deficit to win the game. (They were losing by 10 points but managed to win.)
• Cognitive/Neurological:
  • The people concerned have a deficit in verbal memory. (These individuals have a measurable impairment in their ability to remember words.)
  • They have serious linguistic deficits. (They have significant shortcomings in language abilities.)
• General Shortage:
  • New blood vessels bud out to make up the nutritional deficit. (Vessels grow to compensate for the lack of nutrients in the area.)

Advanced Usage

• "to run a deficit": To operate with expenses consistently exceeding income.
  • The organization has been running a deficit for three consecutive quarters.
• "deficit spending": Government spending financed by borrowing rather than taxation.
  • The policy of deficit spending was used to stimulate the economy during the recession.
• "attention deficit": A shortened form referring to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or similar conditions.
  • The child was diagnosed with an attention deficit.

Variants and Related Words

• Deficiency (n): A lack or shortage of something. (Often used more broadly than deficit.)
  • A vitamin deficiency can cause health problems.
• Deficit Reduction (n): The process or policy of decreasing a financial deficit.
  • The committee's primary goal is deficit reduction.

Synonyms

• Shortfall: An amount by which something falls short.
• Shortage: A state or situation in which something needed cannot be obtained in sufficient amounts.
• Gap: A difference, especially an undesirable one, between two views or situations.

Related Phrases

• Twin deficits: Refers to a situation where a country has both a fiscal (budget) deficit and a current account (trade) deficit simultaneously.
  • Economists are concerned about the nation's twin deficits.
• Deficit hawk: A person, especially a politician, who is very concerned about reducing government budget deficits.
  • As a deficit hawk, she argued for spending cuts.

Idioms

• "In deficit": Describing a state of having a shortfall.
  • The pension fund has been in deficit for years.
• "Make up a deficit" / "Meet a deficit": To provide what is lacking; to cover a shortfall.
  • The charity launched a campaign to make up the funding deficit.

Noun

1. an excess of liabilities over assets (usually over a certain period)
   • last year there was a serious budgetary deficit
2. (sports) the score by which a team or individual is losing
3. a deficiency or failure in neurological or mental functioning
   • the people concerned have a deficit in verbal memory
   • they have serious linguistic deficits
4. the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required
   • new blood vessels bud out from the already dilated vascular bed to make up the nutritional deficit