Definition of "paucity"

But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves.

1915, Anna Katharine Green, The Golden Slipper, problem 7

This paucity of trains helps to explain why electrification is not planned between Paris and Belfort.

1963 January, “Beyond the Channel: France”, in Modern Railways, page 60

Your tax refund might be late, owing to a paucity of number crunchers.

2006 July 13, Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman, “Uncle Sam Wants You”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 10 October 2009

It cannot be denied it [the chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.

1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Cameleon”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], 3rd book, page 133

Now came shipwrecks and life in open boats, with the usual paucity of food.

1898, Mark Twain, At the Appetite-Cure

Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest.

1915, Gene Stratton-Porter, chapter 12, in Michael O'Halloran

Genteel America was handicapped by meagerness of soul, thinness of temper, paucity of talent.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, page 407

There are also texts that present more lengthy lists, of between ten and thirty examples, and in doing so include some less common terms. But, on the whole, there is at present a paucity of information about these terms.

2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 2