'Deficiency' definitions:

Definition of 'deficiency'

(from WordNet)
noun
The state of needing something that is absent or unavailable; "there is a serious lack of insight into the problem"; "water is the critical deficiency in desert regions"; "for want of a nail the shoe was lost" [syn: lack, deficiency, want]
noun
Lack of an adequate quantity or number; "the inadequacy of unemployment benefits" [syn: insufficiency, inadequacy, deficiency] [ant: adequacy, sufficiency]

Definition of 'Deficiency'

From: GCIDE
  • Deficiency \De*fi"cien*cy\, n.; pl. Deficiencies. [See Deficient.] The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect. "A deficiency of blood." --Arbuthnot. [1913 Webster]
  • [Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries. --Buckle. [1913 Webster]
  • Deficiency of a curve (Geom.), the amount by which the number of double points on a curve is short of the maximum for curves of the same degree. [1913 Webster]