Underfunding is the situation where something — a school, a hospital, a train system, a research project — is not given enough money to do its job properly. The noun names the problem itself, and it is usually used about public things, or about parts of a big organization, rather than about one person. You will hear it most in news reports, in politics, and in complaints from the people who work inside these places: 'years of underfunding', 'chronic underfunding of the health service'. Notice two things about how it feels. First, it points a finger. Nobody says 'underfunding' about their own choice to spend less; you say it when you think someone ELSE — usually a government, a board, a head office — should have paid more and did not. It carries blame quietly inside it. Second, it is about a shortfall against a NEED, not just a small budget. A small project with a small budget is not underfunded if the money is enough. So the word always implies a standard the money failed to reach. The related adjective is 'underfunded' (an underfunded school), and the verb is 'underfund'. In real use the noun is often stretched to mean the long-term damage as well as the money problem — when someone says 'you can see the underfunding', they mean the broken windows, the old machines, the staff who left.

經費不足、資金短缺（尤指政府對公共服務長期投入不夠）。台灣新聞常說「長期經費不足」「預算短缺」；注意這個詞帶有責怪的意思，是在說「該給的錢沒給」，不只是「錢很少」。