penury
/ˈpɛnjʊri
/noun [mass noun]
The state of being very poor; extreme poverty: he couldn’t face another year of penury...
- Now, as then, a government is reducing its citizens to penury as they are deprived of their income and homes.
- Perhaps it was unavoidable, yet it was a road that led past ruin, default and penury, through the plunder of Russia and the impoverishment of Russians.
- Bastille Day in France commemorates the French Revolution and reminds us of one of the most unpleasant and blood-soaked regimes ever to have reduced a country to penury.
Synonyms
extreme/dire poverty, pennilessness, impecuniousness, impoverishment, indigence, need, neediness, want, destitution, privation, deprivation, hardship, beggary, bankruptcy, insolvency, ruin, reduced circumstances, straitened circumstances
rare pauperism, pauperdom, mendicity
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin penuria 'need, scarcity'; perhaps related to paene 'almost'.