Scarcity
Etymology
From Old North French escarsete, from escars, "scanty, sparing," traced to a Vulgar Latin form generally derived from excerpere, "to pluck out" — as if what is scarce has been picked over and depleted. The economic sense, central to modern economics, treats scarcity as the fundamental problem that prices and choices exist to solve.
noun · /SKAIR-sih-tee/
The condition of a resource being limited relative to the demand for it.
What it names
The gap between finite supply and unlimited wants — the basic economic fact that there is not enough of most things to go around freely.
Example
The chip scarcity forced carmakers to idle whole factories while they waited for components.
Related idea
Dearth names an acute, harmful shortage of one thing; scarcity is the broader, structural condition that makes trade-offs and prices necessary in the first place.