During the drought, clean drinking water became so scarce that residents had to ration every drop.
干旱期间，清洁饮用水变得极其稀少，居民不得不定量配给每一滴水。
Scientists believe this resilience stems from a unique protein that protects the tardigrade's cellular structures when water is scarce.
From a Central Ideas and Details question · Information and Ideas
Which choice best defines “scarce”?
C — Not enough, rare. “scarce” means not enough, rare.
Which word means “not enough, rare”?
C — scarce. “scarce” means not enough, rare.
scarce — not enough, rare. In Chinese: 稀少的，不足的.
scarce is pronounced /skers/.
During the drought, clean drinking water became so scarce that residents had to ration every drop. (干旱期间，清洁饮用水变得极其稀少，居民不得不定量配给每一滴水。)
rare, sparse, insufficient — all close in meaning to scarce (not enough, rare).
abundant, plentiful — each the opposite of scarce (not enough, rare).
Yes. scarce is on the SAT Prep Easy list — mid-frequency academic words that do get tested. The Digital SAT does not test vocabulary in isolation; words like this one are tested through Words in Context questions, where you choose the word that completes a passage most logically and precisely.
scare(scarce)+ce(adjective).