"for lack of" meaning in English

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "prep"
      },
      "expansion": "for lack of",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              43,
              54
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Chasca planetary description:",
          "text": "Chasca's ring is unique. It appears to be, for lack of a better term, a massive piece of alien \"installation art.\" The rings are made of small pieces of synthetic material, and are almost invisible from space. From the ground, they catch and scatter the light of Matano in picturesque ways. It is not known who created the ring or when.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "December 2019 Letters: Boulder’s demographic stagnation; Republicans are funny; an invisible minority Boulder Daily Camera\nYet there is an invisible minority of those with these disorders who, unlike those poster children we think of, pass, for lack of a better word, undetected in our daily lives. It’s likely everyone knows at least one person with autism, dyslexia, or another disorder without knowing it, and because they are an invisible minority, our daily actions affect them far more dramatically."
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              121,
              132
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Lower Than the Angels, Penguin, published 2025, page 277:",
          "text": "Premonstratensian double communities of monks and nuns ended up being separated, and most of the nunneries withered away for lack of resources or endowments to support even the most ascetic of lives.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of for want of."
      ],
      "id": "en-for_lack_of-en-prep-UZ0IVFdO",
      "links": [
        [
          "for want of",
          "for want of#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "for lack of trying"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "for want of"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "for lack of"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "prep"
      },
      "expansion": "for lack of",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "for lack of trying"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrasal prepositions",
        "English prepositions",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              43,
              54
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Chasca planetary description:",
          "text": "Chasca's ring is unique. It appears to be, for lack of a better term, a massive piece of alien \"installation art.\" The rings are made of small pieces of synthetic material, and are almost invisible from space. From the ground, they catch and scatter the light of Matano in picturesque ways. It is not known who created the ring or when.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "December 2019 Letters: Boulder’s demographic stagnation; Republicans are funny; an invisible minority Boulder Daily Camera\nYet there is an invisible minority of those with these disorders who, unlike those poster children we think of, pass, for lack of a better word, undetected in our daily lives. It’s likely everyone knows at least one person with autism, dyslexia, or another disorder without knowing it, and because they are an invisible minority, our daily actions affect them far more dramatically."
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              121,
              132
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Lower Than the Angels, Penguin, published 2025, page 277:",
          "text": "Premonstratensian double communities of monks and nuns ended up being separated, and most of the nunneries withered away for lack of resources or endowments to support even the most ascetic of lives.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of for want of."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "for want of",
          "for want of#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "for want of"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "for lack of"
}