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poverty

[pov-er-tee] / ˈpɒv ər ti /


Usage

What are other ways to say poverty? Poverty denotes serious lack of the means for proper existence: living in a state of extreme poverty. Destitution, a somewhat more literary word, implies a state of having absolutely none of the necessities of life: widespread destitution in countries at war. Indigence denotes a severely impoverished condition marked by hardship and the lack of any of life’s comforts: reduced to a life of indigence.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The South Cotswolds Food Poverty Report 2025-26 said one in three households referred for emergency food support had some form of income.

From BBC • Jun. 18, 2026

In the shop’s front window was a single book: “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto” by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, surrounded by signs that read “Forced Out!,”

From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026

What seems more likely is what the Southern Poverty Law Center has said, which is, “We pay informants to do this.”

From Slate • May 4, 2026

Meet F-37, a figure in the indictment a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., handed up last week against the self-styled antiracist nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026

The curtain parts again in about 1500 B.C., when an archipelago of villages, the largest known as Poverty Point, grew up in the northeast corner of Louisiana.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann




Vocabulary lists containing poverty


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