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pov·er·ty 
Audio Help [pov-er-tee] Pronunciation Key
Audio Help [pov-er-tee] Pronunciation Key –noun
| 1. | the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence. |
| 2. | deficiency of necessary or desirable ingredients, qualities, etc.: poverty of the soil. |
| 3. | scantiness; insufficiency: Their efforts to stamp out disease were hampered by a poverty of medical supplies. |
[Origin: 1125–75; ME poverte < OF < L paupertāt- (s. of paupertās) small means, moderate circumstances. See pauper, -ty2]
] —Synonyms 1. penury. Poverty, destitution, need, want imply a state of privation and lack of necessities. 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. Need emphasizes the fact that help or relief is necessary: Most of the people were in great need. Want emphasizes privations, esp. lack of food and clothing: Families were suffering from want. 3. meagerness.
—Antonyms 1. riches, wealth, plenty.
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
poverty
To learn more about poverty visit Britannica.com
| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| pov·er·ty
Audio Help (pŏv'ər-tē) Pronunciation Key
n.
[Middle English poverte, from Old French, from Latin paupertās, from pauper, poor; see pau-1 in Indo-European roots.] |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
poverty
c.1175, from O.Fr. poverte, from L. paupertatem (nom. paupertas) "poverty," from pauper (see poor).
"Seeing so much poverty everywhere makes me think that God is not rich. He gives the appearance of it, but I suspect some financial difficulties." [Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables," 1862]
| Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper |
| poverty | |
noun | |
| the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions [ant: wealth] |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
poverty [ˈpovəti] noun
the condition of being poor
Example: They lived in extreme poverty; the poverty of the soil
Example: They lived in extreme poverty; the poverty of the soil
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| Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd. |
Poverty
In"di*gence\, n. [L. indigentia: cf. F. indigence. See Indigent.] The condition of being indigent; want of estate, or means of comfortable subsistence; penury; poverty; as, helpless, indigence. --Cowper. Syn: Poverty; penury; destitution; want; need; privation; lack. See Poverty.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
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