A reader writes:
I keep seeing this: “lacked considerably behind” when what is meant is “lagged considerably behind.”
When I went looking, I also found many examples of lacking where the context calls for lagging. Here are a few:
Incorrect: Bad WPO ranking on most pages [are] lacking behind the top US healthcare sites
Correct: Bad WPO ranking on most pages [are] lagging behind the top US healthcare sitesIncorrect: Africa is clearly lacking behind [in foreign investment].
Correct: Africa is clearly lagging behind [in foreign investment].Incorrect: Good research lacking behind fitness promises
Correct: Good research lagging behind fitness promises
The meaning of the verb lag in the idiom “to lag behind” is “to fail to keep pace with others.”
Usually, the behind that follows lagging is a preposition that takes an object:
One very controversial topic recently is how America is lagging far behind other nations in terms of quality of education.—Business Today.
Sometimes “lagging behind” is used as a phrasal verb:
U.S. lagging behind on gender equality.—CNN.
The verb to lack means “to be deficient in quantity or degree.” For example:
Customers with mental illness are lacking services due to decreased funding available to the local CMH.
When your intended meaning is “to fail to maintain the desired speed of progress,” “to slacken the desired pace from weakness or sloth,” “to hang back,” “to fall behind,” or “to remain in the rear,” the idiom you want is “to lag behind.”
Ha, I never heard/saw that mistake. There are people who are lacking behind but I am surely not one of them LOLOL 😉
Maybe Merriam Webster has it.
LAG
intransitive verb
lagged lag·ging
Definition of LAG
verb
1: lack
2: to stay or fall behind.
Or maybe it’s one of those “accents” that you have to accept
Maybe Merriam Webster has it.
LAG
lagged lag·ging
Definition of LAG
intransitive verb
1: lack
2: to stay or fall behind.
Or maybe it’s one of those “accents” that you have to accept
LAG \ˈlag\ also \ˈlak\
It occurs to me that “to lag” already implies “behind”, which is really added to the idiom only for emphasis. For instance, you could say, “America is lagging other nations in terms of quality of education,” and the meaning is not different than “lagging behind.” If you want to suggest the degree of lag, however, “lagging far behind” works well, although “much lagging” or some other construct could work, also.
I agree with David–the word “lagging” usually does not need “behind” to explain such situations.
I feel Lagging Behind is necessary as compared to just Lagging because Lagging has multiple meaning, so using just lag would not necessarily mean the same as using Lagging behind.
Like “Again” or “Again and Again”. Mark asked the question again… or … Mark asked the question again and again