pauci

Pauci is a combining form used in scientific and medical terminology to indicate scarcity or a small quantity of something. It derives from the Latin paucus, meaning few or little, and appears in English as pauci- in hyphenated compounds or as a prefix attached to a root.

In medical and scientific usage, pauci- forms terms that describe limited extent or amount. A well-known example is pauci-immune, used to describe conditions in which little or no immune complex deposition is detected on immunofluorescence. This term is common in nephrology, such as pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis and pauci-immune vasculitis. In rheumatology, pauciarticular describes arthritis affecting a small number of joints, as in pauciarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The prefix can also appear in other specialized terms where a small quantity or limited extent is being described.

Pauci is one of several prefixes that convey smallness; it is Latin in origin, whereas the Greek-derived prefix oligo- (meaning few) is also used in scientific vocabulary. The choice between pauci- and oligo- depends on tradition within a field and the specific term being formed. In practice, pauci- often signals limited presence of a feature (such as deposits, immune activity, or joints) in medical contexts, while oligo- may be more common in broader biological terminology. The prefix itself is not a standalone word but a building block in compound terms.