Meaning of poverty in English

poverty

noun [ U ]

/ˈpɒv.ə.ti/ us

/ˈpɑː.vɚ.t̬i/

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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 something formal

a lack of something or when the quality of something is extremely low:

There is a disappointing poverty of creativity in their work.

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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.

(Definition of poverty from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

poverty | American Dictionary

poverty

noun [ U ]

/ˈpɑv·ər·t̬i/

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the condition of being poor:

He grew up in poverty.

(Definition of poverty from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

poverty | Business English

poverty

noun [ U ]

ECONOMICS

/ˈpɒvəti/ us

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the condition of being extremely poor:

Some 80% of Haitians live in poverty, and few have proper jobs.

(Definition of poverty from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of poverty

poverty

Many imaginative changes could be made at no cost, and that is the basis on which we have tried to approach some of poverty's difficult problems.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

His findings show powerfully that poverty can structure the individual life course and generational relationships across time.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Poverty is worrying about money all the time.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The factory, she argues, ' ' suggests poverty, entrapment, back-breaking work.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

How did its wealth or poverty change over the very long period covered by this book?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The second issue concerns poverty and other social problems, as well as efforts to deal with those problems.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The overseers (homen iin) measured the degree of poverty in almost the same way.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Secondly, they actively carried out and published social surveys of urban poverty.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

According to this interpretation, the aged ordinarily resided with their adult children only out of necessity, especially in cases of poverty or infirmity.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The foundlings may therefore have come from parishes containing wealthy individuals, but also a large degree of poverty and indigence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Poverty was the main reason why children were boarded out, frequently associated with loss of parents and difficulties in providing for a large household.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We should all do our best to lessen poverty and suffering and make the world a more equal place.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There are, to be sure, fewer inscriptions and no very lengthy ones, but that too reflects the relative poverty of public culture.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They may simply assume that old age is a time of poverty, decay and discrimination.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What are the causes of poverty in old age?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of poverty

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.