That's just a problem with Wikipedia being Wikipedia. That's not a definition. If you read the actual source that's used in that section§, you'll see that what

That's just a problem with Wikipedia being Wikipedia. That's not a definition. If you read the actual source that's used in that section§, you'll see that what he uses as a definition is the following: > A shortage is a market condition existing at any price where the quantity supplied is less than the quantity demanded. He then goes on to talk about how the shortage provides a signal to sellers to move the price closer to equilibrium (upwards, in this case) but that doesn't make it not a shortage. In questions of definitions, it's also informative to try an alternative source. I propose the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (simply because they have a convenient online glossary): https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/glossary https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/glossary > Shortage: When the quantity demanded of a good or service exceeds the quantity supplied at a particular price. I'm not going to update the Wikipedia page because the Definition section needs quite some rewording and citation to make it authoritative and if I just add this in, it will make that part incoherent. § Tucker's Economics for Today, which is also wrongly named in that section as Economics Today. In the 7th edition, this is on Page 80