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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.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. —President Trump in his first term proved a windfall for the Southern Poverty Law Center, the antiracism nonprofit famed for its courtroom wins against the Ku Klux Klan decades ago.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 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

There are nearly 100 “hate and anti-government” groups in the state, including anti-vaxxers, doomsday prepper militias and old-school neo-Nazi outfits, according to the latest publicly available data from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

Poverty is making people sick, and affordability is the foundation upon which we can build healthier communities.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 23, 2026

Poverty was a gleaming thing; she could not conceive of poor people being vicious or nasty because their poverty had canonized them, and the greatest saints were the foreign poor.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie




Vocabulary lists containing poverty


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