indigence
Usage
What are other ways to say indigence?
Indigence denotes a severely impoverished condition marked by hardship and the lack of any of life’s comforts: reduced to a life of indigence. Destitution, a somewhat literary word, implies a state of having absolutely none of the necessities of life: widespread destitution in countries at war. Poverty denotes serious lack of the means for proper existence: living in a state of extreme poverty.
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 challenges of Maloney’s background — familial trauma, poor medical care, occasional indigence — form part of the back story, but they are ultimately beside the point of this book.
From New York Times • Feb. 25, 2022
Oetken said his ruling on Parnas’ indigence was in response to a letter from his lawyer stating he could no longer pay the costs of his defense.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 4, 2021
Applicants can easily prove their indigence by filing an affidavit or simply noting that they were assigned a public defender.
From Slate • May 26, 2020
They “punctured,” he said, Life magazine’s “conception of indigence as an abstract lure to an ideological foe” — Communism.
From Washington Post • Oct. 15, 2019
It is a fine thing, reader, to be lifted in a moment from indigence to wealth—a very fine thing; but not a matter one can comprehend, or consequently enjoy, all at once.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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Vocabulary lists containing indigence
Walden
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The Horse and His Boy
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Oliver Twist
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