The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word PAUCITY
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
P
A
U
C
I
T
Y
More clues leading to the result PAUCITY
- Shortage of parking area acceptable to municipality
- Shame about a university campus principally in meagre condition
- According to the radio, deprived urban area shows dearth
- Shortage of peanut — regular occurrence in Chennai, perhaps
- Need religious correspondent to remove line on possible cathedral location
- Dearth of gold in quiet conurbation
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Need" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case need = paucity.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does PAUCITY mean?
PAUCITY noun- Fewness in number; too few.
- A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.