povertynoun [ U ]
uk/ˈpɒv.ə.ti/us/ˈpɑː.vɚ.t̬i/B2 the condition of being extremely poor:
Two million people in the city live in abject (= very great) poverty.
He emigrated to Australia to escape the grinding (= very great) poverty of his birthplace.
Helping to alleviate poverty in developing countries also helps to reduce environmental destruction.
a poverty of sth formal
a lack of something or when the quality of something is extremely low:
There is a disappointing poverty of creativity in their work.
More examples
- The problem of poverty is particularly acute in rural areas.
- The closure of the factory brought poverty to the town .
- When is the government going to tackle the problem of poverty in the inner cities?
- I've never witnessed such extremes of wealth and poverty.
- The problems of poverty, homelessness and unemployment are all interconnected.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Scarce, inadequate and not enough
- be at a premium idiom
- be thin on the ground idiom
- dearth
- deficiency
- deficient
- gold dust
- lacking
- late
- long on sth and short on sth idiom
- lousy
- meagre
- measly
- nearly
- rare
- scarcity
- shortage
- shortfall
- sparse
- supply
- thin
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