What's the difference between paucity and trifle?

Paucity


Definition:

  • (n.) Fewness; smallness of number; scarcity.
  • (n.) Smallnes of quantity; exiguity; insufficiency; as, paucity of blood.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Their speech patterns, specifically pronoun use, were analyzed and support the postulate that a high frequency of self-references indicates memory loss and paucity of present experience.
  • (2) While the number of women with early stage breast cancer choosing the latter treatment continues to increase, there is a paucity of information in the nursing literature assessing the informational and psychosocial needs of this group.
  • (3) There is a paucity of informative data on the potentially important role of specific sites of chromosomal instability in oncogenic processes.
  • (4) The paucity of intermediate sequences indicated that strong selection pressure was exerted on this part of the envelope.
  • (5) Apart from the absence or paucity of endometrial glands, the clinical and pathological features of the lesions were similar to those of previously described cases of superficial endometriosis of the cervix.
  • (6) in the US the last ten years have witnessed an alarming recrudescence involving vast strata of the population and especially children, although this is masked by the paucity of reports, as is the case also in Italy.
  • (7) Alagille syndrome is characterized by the association of chronic cholestasis with a paucity of interlobular bile ducts and a distinctive facies together with cardiovascular, skeletal and eye abnormalities.
  • (8) The alveolar macrophages were increased in number and size but marked cytoplasmic vacuolation and a paucity of lysosomes are consistent with our previous suggestion that the phagocytic and migratory properties of these cells are weakened or inhibited.
  • (9) A variety of sources can account for marine pollution by genotoxic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic compounds, but there is a relative paucity of analytical data concerning the Mediterranean.
  • (10) In MND subjects, neurons in Onuf's nucleus at S2 were preserved despite a paucity of neurons in medial and lateral motor nuclei and were of similar size range to those in control subjects.
  • (11) The difficulties encountered in good experimental design in this formidable area, which may account for the paucity of work, are discussed.
  • (12) Vitamin D deficiency was characterized by an increase in proliferating cells, with a relative paucity of hypertrophic cells; EHDP treatment was characterized by an increase in hypertrophic cells.
  • (13) This paucity of abnormal features of gross development is consistent with findings in 3 previously reported patients with ring 17 chromosomes.
  • (14) Our observations demonstrate paucity of cell-mediated immune response in stromal keratitis.
  • (15) Seizures were rare and there was a paucity of localizing neurological signs.
  • (16) Understanding the mechanisms by which these oncogenes affect various cell types has been hampered by a paucity of experimental systems that reproduce the range of biological effects associated with them.
  • (17) Analysis based on the assumptions that solution dimensions are preserved, adsorption is random, and surface rearrangement is negligible indicates a paucity of surface sites.
  • (18) The discrepancy between the size of the tumour and the paucity of physical findings, the value of a multiple test auditory screening strategy, and the surgical approach in this case are discussed.
  • (19) The relatively infrequent use of CT in evaluating the adnexa has resulted in a paucity of literature regarding the CT characteristics of benign ovarian masses.
  • (20) The paucity of metholologic explorations is further aggravated by the constraints on communications regarding methodology.

Trifle


Definition:

  • (n.) A thing of very little value or importance; a paltry, or trivial, affair.
  • (n.) A dish composed of sweetmeats, fruits, cake, wine, etc., with syllabub poured over it.
  • (n.) To act or talk without seriousness, gravity, weight, or dignity; to act or talk with levity; to indulge in light or trivial amusements.
  • (v. t.) To make of no importance; to treat as a trifle.
  • (v. t.) To spend in vanity; to fritter away; to waste; as, to trifle away money.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) After a relatively trifling lead exposure they developed the signs of acute lead intoxication.
  • (2) It featured Adam Dalgliesh, the poet-policeman, and he seemed old-fashioned, too, intellectual and a trifle upper-class.
  • (3) So Inter sold him to Real Madrid at the end of the 1995-96 season for the trifling sum of £3.5million - less than they had paid for him.
  • (4) 1.15pm: Dave Espley is not a man to be trifled with: "I'd agree with Steven Gardner regarding the use of video technology for goalline reviews, but I'd go slightly further with regard to the retrospective punishment for cheating.
  • (5) Clementine and dark chocolate trifle (above) This recipe gives classic trifle a zingy twist with clementines and orange blossom; a great make-ahead dinner party dessert.
  • (6) Of course it is the hyperbolic silliness – the make-or-break trifle sponge, custard thefts, and prolonged ruminations over "The Crumb" – that makes The Great British Bake Off so lovable.
  • (7) English friends had explained to me, not without pride, the importance of grumbling to the national character, but I still want to stress to every Londoner I meet that — take it from a visiting Los Angeleno — the tube exists, and that counts as no trifling achievement.
  • (8) But it is a trifle dispiriting even so to hear the education secretary parroting the same lines as his predecessors – even more so for teachers, I guess.
  • (9) This March, the proportions of loans taken by finance and property slumped all the way to a trifling 74.7%, while non-financial firms took a whopping 25.3%.
  • (10) It wasn't a baked Alaska, a fruit tart, a cream-laden trifle or a steamed treacle sponge.
  • (11) If you wish to have only a trifling risk group of 10% of all pregnant women, you can predict right only about 50% of all infants with low birth weight.
  • (12) Bake Off validates the small quiet dramas of the trifling everyday.
  • (13) As in most mutinous them-and-us industrial confrontations it had been simmering for years and then boiled over for what seemed the most trifling of reasons.
  • (14) "And he is at a loss whether to pity a people who take such arrant trifles in good earnest or to envy that happiness which enables a community to discuss them."
  • (15) I try to answer these letters, but compared to the stories I'm hearing, my experience has been trifling - as more than one correspondent has pointed out.
  • (16) With the menswear shows in the capital now on their sixth season, such trifles have their place even in the mainstream world of an Arcadia-owned brand.
  • (17) Some jokey conspiracy theories did the rounds and one YouTube user criticised Hadfield's interpretation of the song as being overly literal (arguably correct, but a trifle harsh, considering).
  • (18) Clegg was the deputy prime minister and would not jeopardise his relationship with the Conservative party over such a trifle.
  • (19) And what would become of my mornings in my little corner and my late nights scanning the TV channels, watching my crime shows, not a trifling thing?
  • (20) But it’s no trifle — especially given the governor’s national ambitions.