The Chinese word 缺少 is formed through the complementary combination of two characters with similar meanings to create a single, reinforced concept. The character 缺 (quē) carries the core idea of being broken, deficient, or having a gap, implying an inherent incompleteness. It is paired with 少 (shǎo), which directly means "few" or "insufficient in quantity". Together, they merge the notion of a flawed, incomplete state (缺) with the notion of scarce quantity (少), resulting in the comprehensive meaning "to lack" or "to be short of", where both the qualitative absence and the quantitative shortage are implied.