JLPT N1 · い-adjective

乏しい (toboshii)

乏しい (とぼしい, toboshii) is a Japanese い-adjective meaning “meagre; meager”. It appears in JLPT N1 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading: とぼしい
Romaji: toboshii
Word class: い-adjective
Level: JLPT N1 (unofficial)

Meaning

meagre; meager; scarce; limited; destitute · い-adjective

Example sentences

この国には石油が乏しい。

Oil is scarce in this country.

Tatoeba #221945

Sentences from the Tatoeba project, linked to this word in JMdict.

Conjugation of 乏しい

い-adjective. Plain and polite forms below; try any other word in the Japanese verb conjugator.

Form	Japanese	Reading
Present	乏しい	とぼしい toboshii
Negative	乏しくない	とぼしくない toboshikunai
Past	乏しかった	とぼしかった toboshikatta
Negative past	乏しくなかった	とぼしくなかった toboshikunakatta
Te-form	乏しくて	とぼしくて toboshikute
Adverb (~ku)	乏しく	とぼしく toboshiku
Conditional (~ba)	乏しければ	とぼしければ toboshikereba

Kanji in 乏しい

乏

destitution, scarce, limitedボウ・とぼ.しい・とも.しい · 4 strokes

Related words

Other vocabulary sharing a kanji with 乏しい.

欠乏けつぼうdeficiency窮乏きゅうぼうpoverty貧乏びんぼうpoverty-stricken

Source: JMdict entry 1584130 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.