-acy, -cy

1. The quality or condition of being immediate: The immediacy of getting to the hospital on time is of great importance when a person is suffering from appendicidis.
2. Freedom from an intermediate or intervening agency; direct relation or connexion; directness: In the present time, it is so important to have the immediacy of live-television news coverage.

1. A lack of an adequate quantity or number: Sally viewed the food supply and saw the inadequacy of certain ingredients for making dinner that evening.
2. A lack of competence; insufficiency: Debbie's inadequacy in swimming prevented her from joining her friends in the pool.

Regarding an individual who is unfamiliar with mathematical theories and formulas: As much as he regrets it, Gilbert is an innumerate person who is unable to understand or to do basic mathematics.

Equality of power or rule: Isocracy is a system of government in which all the people in the country possess equal political power.

Pertaining to the equality of authority and rule: A dictatorship is certainly the opposite of an isocratic system of government in which all the people possess equal political power.

A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption: In the magazine article that Clive was reading, it said that a kleptocracy was a ruling body consisting of criminals or thieves.

A system of rule by Biblical judges: According to the Book of Exodus, krytocracy was a government in ancient Israel and began with Moses.

1. Money or property that is left to someone or others in a will: Mark Jones left his entire art collection as a legacy to the local art museum.
2. Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past: In some places, people have received a legacy of religious freedom.

The Ionic style of architecture that exists in some places is a legacy that has been inherited from ancient Greece.

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1. The fact or situation in which someone or something exists in accordance with the law or is valid: Joe entered the customs office and showed his passport to show his legitimacy to pick up the parcel that was waiting for him.

Because legitimacy was important when entering the country, Tim showed his passport to the officials on duty.
2. The condition of being in accordance with law or principle: Legitimacy is now usually referred to with respect to a sovereign's title or, in a narrower sense, the fact of being derived by regular descent.

Legitimacy also refers to the principle of lineal succession to the throne, as a political doctrine.
3. Conformity to rules or principles; that which is legal: Mrs. Thompson declared her legitimacy to enter the theater by showing her ticket that she had bought the day before.

1. The ability to read and to write: Greg became skilled in literacy when he was in elementary school and enjoyed poring over books about animals.
2. The understanding of written material or the expertise in a specific area: Computer literacy is certainly an advantage when seeking a job in the present world.

1. The condition of being insane: A case of intermittent lunacy was formerly supposed to be brought about by the changes of the moon, but is now applied generally to any form of insanity or idiocy.
2. Legally, but thought to be obsolete, a mental unsoundness and interfered with civil rights or transactions. Lunacy was also thought to be a fit or an attack of of an unsound mind.

Lunacy is an offensive term for any psychiatric disorder that renders patients legally incompetent and requires them to be taken into care: The term lunacy was supposedly never used by physicians in medical or psychiatric contexts.
3. An unintelligent, inconsiderate, or misguided behavior, or an example of it: Lunacy is now considered to be a totally foolish and stupid act.

A government or dominance of society by the mediocre: Floyd thought his country was managed by a kind of mediocracy, being quite moderate and ordinary, and too often unsatisfactory and poorly run.

Any community, society, or social group that is based on matriarchy: Metrocracy is a form of organization or government where women have power.

Metrocracy can be further explained as a form of social order where women are in charge and are recognized as the heads of families, with power, lineage, and inheritance passing, where possible, from mothers to daughters.

A government run by amateurs: Neocracy can be described as the rule of the upstarts by nonprofessionals.

A neocracy is run by new or inexperienced and untried officials.

The ability to think and to express oneself effectively with a knowledge of mathematical skills: Carolina had a superior numeracy that made her capable of understanding mathematical concepts, performing calculations, and interpreting and using statistical information.