dearth
DURTHnounMeaning a lack or shortage
Memory hook D-EARTH: DRY EARTH. No rain for months, and the field is nothing but dry, cracked earth. The dry earth shows a dearth of rain.
There is a dearth of good pizza places in our small town.
In context Because of a dearth of rain, the river shrank to a trickle, and the farmers had to haul water to their fields in buckets.
Similar lack, shortage, scarcity, absence
Opposite abundance, plenty, surplus
From Middle English derthe, from dear in its old sense of “costly”: when something runs short, it grows dear.