Indigence definition

ĭndĭ-jəns
The state of being poor; poverty.
noun
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The condition of being indigent.
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
indigence
Plural:
indigences

Origin of indigence

  • Middle English, late 14th century, from Old French indigence (13th century), from Latin indigentia, from indigentem, form of indigere (“to need”), from indu (“in, within”) + egere (“be in need, want”).

    From Wiktionary

  • Only relation to antonym affluence is common Latinate suffix +‎ -ence.

    From Wiktionary

Indigence Sentence Examples

  • The hurricane, too, was followed by repeated droughts, and the inhabitants of the out-islands were reduced to indigence and want, a condition which is still, in some measure, in evidence.

  • He led, separated from his family, an erratic life for some years; was divorced from his consort in 1812; and finally settled at St Gall in Switzerland in great loneliness and indigence.

  • After the revolution of July 1830 he reappeared in France, was reduced by a series of lawsuits to extreme indigence, accepted a small pension assigned him by Louis Philippe (on whom he had heaped abuse and railing), and died, the last survivor of the Committee of Public Safety, on the 13th of January 1841.

  • Freemen, through indigence, sometimes sold themselves, and at Athens, up to the time of Solon, an insolvent debtor became the slave of his creditor.

  • He lost his father prematurely; and after the battle of Philippi and the return of Octavian to Rome, Propertius, like Virgil and Horace, was deprived of his, estate to provide land for the veterans, but, unlike them, he had no patrons at court, and he was reduced from opulence to comparative indigence.

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