poverty

The state of having too little money to meet basic needs.

• Many families live in poverty.
• The charity helps children escape poverty.
• Losing his job pushed him into poverty.

Similar words: destitution

Opposites: wealth

Common phrases: live in poverty, extreme poverty, poverty line

A lack of something that is needed or wanted.

• The report shows a poverty of ideas.
• The poverty of the soil limits what farmers can grow.
• Her criticism focused on the poverty of their imagination.

How to use it: poverty of something (The essay reveals a poverty of original thought.)

Similar words: lack, shortage, scarcity

Opposites: abundance

Common phrases: poverty of ideas, poverty of imagination, poverty of resources