scant

1. 1.

   less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so

   “a light pound”

   “a scant cup of sugar”

   “regularly gives short weight”

   Synonymslightshort

   Similarinsufficient

Other forms of scant

past tense

scanted·

present participle

scanting·

third person

scants·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about scant

What does scant mean?

scant means "work hastily or carelessly; deal with inadequately and superficially". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in scant?

scant has 1 syllable: scant. In IPA it is /ˈskænt/.

What is another word for scant?

Close synonyms include skimp, skimp, stint, skimp, light. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is scant a common word?

scant is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.