insufficiency

Etymology

From in- + sufficiency.

noun

1. The lack of sufficiency; a shortage or inadequacy.
   The troops went hungry because of the insufficiency of their supplies.
   On a recent trip down the Rhine many of the trains we saw were still steam-hauled, presumably through an insufficiency of electric locomotives, as yet, to deal with peak summer traffic. 1962 October, “Beyond the Channel: Western Germany: Rhine right-bank line re-signalling”, in Modern Railways, page 276