Dictionary.com

Word of the Day Archive
Monday May 24, 1999

exiguity \ek-suh-GYOO-uht-ee\ , noun:
Scantiness; smallness; thinness;the quality of being meager.
--EXIGUOUS, adjective

An exiguity of cloth that would only allow of miniature capes
-- George Eliot

The soldiers' pay is in the highest degree exiguous; not above three half-pence a day.
-- Carlyle

Get Word of the Day on your iPhone or iPod touch »

Download the FREE Dictionary.com app

Exiguity derives from the Latin exiguitas, itself from exiguus, meaning "strictly weighed," which came to signify "too strictly weighed"; hence, "meager." Related to exact ("precisely weighed or determined").

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for exiguity

 

AddThis:  AddThis: del.icio.usAddThis: digg.comAddThis: FacebookAddThis: furl.netAddThis: www.netscape.comAddThis: myweb2.search.yahoo.comAddThis: www.stumbleupon.comAddThis: www.google.comAddThis: www.technorati.comAddThis: blinklist.comAddThis: newsvine.comAddThis: ma.gnolia.comAddThis: reddit.comAddThis: favorites.live.com