All these adjectives describe things that are limited in quantity or deficient in amount. What is scanty is barely adequate or not quite enough, whereas what is meagre is not nearly enough. A scanty meal may be ordered by a dieter, whereas a meagre meal suggests the pinch of poverty and may be poor in quality as well as small in amount. Skimpy is a more informal term than meagre . Unlike scanty , skimpy indicates deliberate stinginess, often suggesting that more could or should be provided. Skimpy , thus, often implies disapproval or dissatisfaction, while scanty may suggest a more serious deficiency: a pretty skimpy serving considering that it was an expensive dinner; a scanty stock of emergency provisions. Meagre is expressive of real want, implying that more is not only desirable but is badly needed: The social worker claimed that it was impossible for the old man to live on his meagre pension.

Insufficient and inadequate are limited by definition to what is not enough to fill requirements or meet needs. These words are less descriptive than scanty , skimpy and meagre , but they are broader in application and better suited to formal contexts, being applied to abstractions as well as to material things: The urchin’s scanty clothing was insufficient for the winter, affording him inadequate protection against the cold. Although insufficient and inadequate are often used interchangeably , insufficient is a purely quantitative term, being applied to what is not enough, whereas inadequate may be qualitative as well, being applied to what is not good enough. Insufficient evidence can only mean not enough evidence, but inadequate evidence can mean either that the evidence is insufficient or that it is of dubious quality.

Sparse and scarce also refer to what is not abundant, but they have to do with occurrence and do not necessarily involve need. Sparse is opposed to dense or thick, describing what is widely scattered in isolated clumps: sparse vegetation; a sparse crowd scattered thinly through the auditorium. What is scarce is in short supply temporarily, hard to get at a given time or in a given place: During World War II, tea was scarce and was rationed.