Poverty

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈpÉ’vÉ™ti/
• GenAm IPA: /ˈpɑːvÉšti/

Origin

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

Full definition of poverty

Noun

1. The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need.
• 2013-06-01, Towards the end of poverty, America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
2. Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related terms

• poor
• poorness