poverty Hear it!

poverty definition

pov·erty (päv′ər tē)

noun

  1. the condition or quality of being poor; indigence; need
  2. deficiency in necessary properties or desirable qualities, or in a specific quality, etc.; inadequacy poverty of the soil, her poverty of imagination
  3. smallness in amount; scarcity; paucity

Etymology: ME poverte < OFr povreté < L paupertas < pauper, poor

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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