Poverty

//ˈpɒvəti// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality or state of being poor; lack of money uncountable, usually

    "get into poverty"

  2. 2
    the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions wordnet
  3. 3
    A deficiency of something needed or desired uncountable, usually

    "poverty of soil"

Synonyms

All synonyms
armthbeggarybeggarydearthdefalcationdestitute

Example

More examples

"Rye was called the grain of poverty."

Etymology

From Middle English poverte, from Old French poverté (Modern French pauvreté), from Latin paupertās, from pauper (“poor”) + -tas (“noun of state suffix”). Cognates include pauper, poor.

Related phrases

digital povertyenergy povertyfuel povertyfurniture povertyhygiene povertyincome povertyperiod povertypoverty grasspoverty is a mindsetpoverty is a state of mindpoverty linepoverty of the stimulus

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.