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Definition: Poverty |
PovertyNoun1. The state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "poverty" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | POVERTY, n. A file provided for the teeth of the rats of reform. The number of plans for its abolition equals that of the reformers who suffer from it, plus that of the philosophers who know nothing about it. Its victims are distinguished by possession of all the virtues and by their faith in leaders seeking to conduct them into a prosperity where they believe these to be unknown. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Census | Following the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB's) Directive 14, the Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to detect who is poor. If the total income for a family or unrelated individual falls below the relevant poverty threshold, then the family or unrelated individual is classified as being "below the poverty level." Related term: Income. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
'Poverty' is a subjective and comparative term describing a lack of sufficient wealth (usually understood as capital, money, material goods, or resources especially natural resources) to live what is understood in a society as a "normal" life: for instance, to be capable of raising a healthy family, and especially educating children and participating in society. A person living in this condition of poverty is said to be poor. The meaning of "sufficient" varies widely across the different political and economic areas of the world.
Poverty is essentially the collective condition of poor people, or of poor groups, and in this sense entire nation-states are sometimes regarded as poor. To avoid stigma these are usually called developing nations.
Poverty is often strongly correlated with social problems, such as crime and disease (notably sexually transmitted diseases), sometimes in epidemic form. As a result, many societies employ social workers to fight poverty by a variety of methods which range from moral persuasion to financial subsidy to physical coercion.
There is evidence of poverty in every region. In developed countries, this condition results in wandering homeless people and poor suburbs (with so-called bidonvilles or favelas) in which poor people are - more or less - restricted to a ghetto.
The condition in itself is not always considered negatively, even if this is the prevalent interpretation: some cultural or religious groups consider poverty an ideal condition to live in, a condition necessary in order to reach certain spiritual or intellectual states. A notable example is that of the Christian Franciscan order. This is called voluntary simplicity, of which voluntary poverty is an extreme form.
Poverty is studied by many social, scientific and cultural disciplines.
Related debates on a states' human capital and a person's individual capital tend likewise to focus on access to the instructional capital and social capital available only to those educated in such formal systems.
- In economics, two kinds of poverty are considered: relative and absolute.
- In politics, the fight against poverty is usually regarded as a social goal and most governments have - secondarily at least - some dedicated institutions or departments. The work done by these bodies is mostly limited to census studies and identification of some income level below which a citizen is technically considered poor. Active interventions may include housing plans, social pensions, special job opportunities, or requirements.
- Some ideologies (such as Marxism) argue that the economists and politicians actively work to create poverty. Other theories consider poverty a sign of a failing economic system and one of the main causes of crime.
- In law, poverty is recognised, in most developed countries, as a mitigating factor for the determination of the punishment, being usually considered coincident with a generic and permanent state of need which can affect and alter the correct capability of clearly or freely identifying the legally and socially acceptable behaviour. Poverty is generally argued to cause increased crime rates amongst the poor by increasing their stress.
- In education, poverty affects a student's ability to effectively profit from the learning environments. Especially for younger students coming from poverty, their primary needs as described in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs; the need for a safe and stable homes, clothes on their backs, and regular meals clouds a student's ability to learn. Furthermore, in education circles there is a term used to characterize the phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poorer getting poorer (as it relates to education but easily transfers to poverty in general) is the Matthew Effect.
See also: poverty pimp, poverty level, Giffen good, pauper's oath
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Poverty."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Although the United States is one of the richest countries in the world, it still has a large number of people who live in poverty.Government anti-poverty efforts have made some progress but have not eradicated the problem. Similarly, periods of strong economic growth, which bring more jobs and higher wages, have helped reduce poverty but have not eliminated it entirely.
The federal government defines a minimum amount of income necessary for basic maintenance of a family of four. This amount may fluctuate depending on the cost of living and the location of the family. In 1998, a family of four with an annual income below $16,530 was classified as living in poverty.
The percentage of people living below the poverty level dropped from 22.4 percent in 1959 to 11.4 percent in 1978. But since then, it has fluctuated in a fairly narrow range. In 1998, it stood at 12.7 percent.
What is more, the overall figures mask much more severe pockets of poverty. In 1998, more than one-quarter of all African-Americans (26.1 percent) lived in poverty; though distressingly high, that figure did represent an improvement from 1979, when 31 percent of blacks were officially classified as poor, and it was the lowest poverty rate for this group since 1959. Families headed by single mothers are particularly susceptible to poverty. Partly as a result of this phenomenon, almost one in five children (18.9 percent) was poor in 1997. The poverty rate was 36.7 percent among African-American children and 34.4 percent among Hispanic children.
Some analysts have suggested that the official poverty figures overstate the real extent of poverty because they measure only cash income and exclude certain government assistance programs such as Food Stamps, health care, and public housing. Others point out, however, that these programs rarely cover all of a family's food or health care needs and that there is a shortage of public housing. Some argue that even families whose incomes are above the official poverty level sometimes go hungry, skimping on food to pay for such things as housing, medical care, and clothing. Still others point out that people at the poverty level sometimes receive cash income from casual work and in the "underground" sector of the economy, which is never recorded in official statistics.
In any event, it is clear that the American economic system does not apportion its rewards equally. In 1997, the wealthiest one-fifth of American families accounted for 47.2 percent of the nation's income, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based research organization. In contrast, the poorest one-fifth earned just 4.2 percent of the nation's income, and the poorest 40 percent accounted for only 14 percent of income.
Despite the generally prosperous American economy as a whole, concerns about inequality continued during the 1980s and 1990s. Increasing global competition threatened workers in many traditional manufacturing industries, and their wages stagnated. At the same time, the federal government edged away from tax policies that sought to favor lower-income families at the expense of wealthier ones, and it also cut spending on a number of domestic social programs intended to help the disadvantaged. Meanwhile, wealthier families reaped most of the gains from the booming stock market.
In the late 1990s, there were some signs these patterns were reversing, as wage gains accelerated -- especially among poorer workers. But at the end of the decade, it was still too early to determine whether this trend would continue.
Global Comparisons
According to Robert Rector's How "Poor" are America's Poor?, published in The State of Humanity, ( editor Julian Simon ):
- Poor people in America are middle-class by the standards of much of the developed world and upper-middle class, even wealthy, by the standards of the ThirdWorld.
- The poor in America own many luxuries.
- 62.5% of America's poor own at least one automobile per household, while 13.6% own two or more automobiles per household. There are 344 automobiles per 1000 poor Americans, roughly the same ratio for the total population of the UnitedKingdom. A poor American is nearly 50% more likely to own a car than the average Japanese.
- Over 95% of America's poor households own one or more televisions. 49% have air conditioning. 30.7% have microwave ovens. 56% have washing machines. 99.1% have refrigerators. 81.3% have telephones. (Data from 1987)
- America's poor enjoy indoor plumbing. 98.2% of America's poor households have flush toilets. In this respect America's poor compare favorably to the average household in other developed nations: 94% in the UK, 93% in West Germany, 89% in Italy, 88% in Spain, 83% in France, and 46% in Japan. (Data from 1980)
- America's poor are well fed. In almost all cultures people's first choice of food is meat, while other foods are eaten when meat is not available. Meat consumption is therefore a good measure of how well people are eating. America's poor eat more meat than the average person in other devleped countries. As a percentage of consumption by poor Americans, West Germany totaled 75, France 70, Italy 62, UK 57, Japan 39. (Data from 1977)
Related topics
- United States
- Standard of living in the United States
- Economy of the United States
- Pareto distribution
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Poverty in the United States."
Synonyms: PovertySynonyms: impoverishment (n), poorness (n). (additional references) |
| Antonym: wealth (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Imbecility Folly | Noun: want of -intelligence; want of -intellect; shadowness, silliness, foolishness; Adjective: imbecility, incapacity, vacancy of mind, poverty of intellect, weakness of intellect, clouded perception, poor head, apartments to let; stupidity, stolidity; hebetude, dull understanding, meanest capacity, shortsightedness; incompetence; (unskillfulness). |
Insufficiency | Scarcity, dearth; want, need, lack, poverty, exigency; inanition, starvation, famine, drought. |
Poverty | Render poor; Adjective: impoverish; reduce, reduce to poverty; pauperize, fleece, ruin, bring to the parish. |
Phrase: zonam perdidit; "a penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree"; a pobreza no hay verguenza; "he that is down can fall no lower"; poca roba poco pensiero; "steeped.. in poverty to the very lips"; "the short and simple annals of the poor". | |
Noun: poverty, indigence, penury, pauperism, want; need, neediness; lack, necessity, privation, distress, difficulties, wolf at the door. | |
Unimportance | Triviality, levity, frivolity; paltriness; Adjective:; poverty; smallness; vanity; (uselessness); matter of indifference; no object. |
Weakness | Anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Drugs, poverty, disease, hunger, despair--we throw gobs of money at them and problems only get worse (Sneakers; writing credit: Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker, and Walter F. Parkes.) But, who said that after getting out of the dirt and the poverty, do we have to stop looking for truth and happiness (The Sopranos; writing credit: Isabel Clara-Simo; Ramón De España) Captain Burke, you have just anchored on poverty row (In Harm's Way; writing credit: James Bassett; Wendell Mayes) I look at it this way: I'll never have to see the ugliness of poverty, or war, or the Chevrolet Nova (The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie; writing credit: Lloyd Kaufman; Pericles Lewnes) If you'll permit me to say so, sir, the subject is not an interesting one. The poor know all about poverty and only the morbid rich would find the topic glamorous (Sullivan's Travels; writing credit: Preston Sturges) | |
Lyrics | In a spectacle of wealth and poverty (Carnival; performing artist: Natalie Merchant) To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice (The Folk Song Army; performing artist: Tom Lehrer) We all hate poverty, war, and injustice, (The Folk Song Army; performing artist: Tom Lehrer) | |
Clever | He is now fast rising from affluence to poverty. (references; author: Mark Twain) Poverty is a condition with but one advantage, it doesn't take much to improve your lot. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Poverty of Riches (1921) Poverty and Compassion (1908) America's War On Poverty (1995) China: Poverty and Promise Guongdong Province (1990) Children of Poverty (1986) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Gold Fields & Poverty Clover (Trifolium depauperatum) at Lower Table Rock. Credit: Terry Tuttle. |  | Poverty Clover (Trifolium depauperatum) at Lower Table Rock. Credit: Terry Tuttle. |
 | Cholera can thrive where poverty, overcrowding and primitive sanitation are found together ... / WHO photo. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Yaws is the disease of poverty and filth. : The first victims are always the children. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by Paul Almasy.. |
 | Return from the War on Poverty (Moynihan, Johnson, and Shriver). Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Cartoon, on poverty in New York City, showing man, labeled "deserving, but out of work," standing in snowstorm looking at sign marked "police station lodging for unfortunate wayfarers, closed by order of T. Roosevelt". Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Poverty on the march, a destitute Ozark family, Arkansas. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | People living in miserable poverty, Elm Grove, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The drunkard's progress, or the direct road to poverty, wretchedness & ruin / designed and published by J.W. Barber, New Haven, Conn. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Save your child from autocracy and poverty. Buy war savings stamps. United States Treasury Department / Herbert Paus. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
(Decimus Junius Juvenalis) Juvenal | Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty. |
Aristophanes | We say that poverty is the sister of beggary. |
Charles De Montesquieu | Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies. |
Decimus Junius Juvenal | We all live in a state of ambitious poverty. |
Elbert Hubbard | A person born with an instinct for poverty. |
Horace | Barefaced poverty drove me to writing verses. |
Jean De La Bruyere | Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit. |
Marcus Aurelius | Poverty is the mother of crime. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | Poverty consist in feeling poor. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | Has not Christianity declaimed against private property, against marriage, against the State? Has it not preached in the place of these, charity and poverty, celibacy and mortification of the flesh, monastic life and Mother Church? Christian Socialism is but the holy, water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat. (reference) |
Winston S. Churchill | 1946 | I have not yet spoken of poverty and privation which are in many cases the prevailing anxiety. ("Iron Curtain" Speech) |
John F. Kennedy | 1961 | For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. (reference) |
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1963 | One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. (Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1932) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | It may be said that poverty and public wealth have an infallible thermometer in the cost of the collection of the taxes |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | Grafton Street, along which he walked, prolonged that moment of discouraged poverty. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | I said they were fellows of desperate fortunes, forced to fly from the places of their birth, on account of their poverty or their crimes |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Persons living in poverty in the developing world. (references) | |
Increased poverty, injection drug use, and homelessness. (references) | ||
Epidemics are a marker for poverty and lack of basic sanitation. (references) | ||
Business | Low health levels in rural areas relate to overall poverty and lack of access to advanced services. (references) | |
Most of the thousands of new jobs created pay no more than $300 a month, creating a mass to people living near the poverty level. (references) | ||
Meanwhile, after several years of gradual reduction, the numbers of Peruvians living in poverty (per capita daily expenditure of $1.25) and extreme poverty ($0.72) has begun to rise again. (references) | ||
Children | India | In May Kul Chandra Gautam, the Deputy Director of UNICEF, stated during a meeting of regional senior government leaders, that the "human landscape in our region continues to be characterized by poverty, underdevelopment, discrimination, environmental degradation, social upheaval, conflict and natural disasters. (references) |
Peru | Children living in poverty average only 4.5 years of education compared to 9.3 years for children living above the poverty line. (references) | |
Peru | The survey indicates that 48 percent of urban and 62 percent of rural school-aged children suffer from malnutrition, and almost 50 out of every 1,000 children die before age 5. The infant mortality rate is 39 per 1,000. According to INEI, approximately 75 percent of children not living in poverty attend school through the high-school level, whereas, only 43 percent of children living in poverty reach high school. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | South Africa | The event promoted unifying the city and addressing unacceptable levels of crime, violence, poverty, bombings, gangsterism, and drug trafficking with celebration and prayer for divine intervention through the power of gospel. (references) |
Poland | Refugees may receive the same subsidies given to citizens living below the poverty line, but no additional money is available to them. (references) | |
Burundi | Due to widespread poverty and limited literacy, radio remained the most important medium of public information. (references) | |
Economic History | Kenya | Kenya's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), approved by the IMF Board in 2000, is currently on hold because of setbacks in implementing required governance measures. (references) |
Kenya | During the 1990s, the manufacturing and agricultural sectors registered a declining growth that has resulted in loss of jobs and increased poverty. (references) | |
Vietnam | In 2001, the government of Vietnam and the World Bank and IMF reached agreement on the provision of structural credits for poverty alleviation. (references) | |
Human Rights | Sri Lanka | Malnutrition resulted from several factors, including food shortages, poverty, and conflict-related dislocations. (references) |
Philippines | The authorities respect the right of defendants to be represented by a lawyer, although poverty often inhibits a defendant's access to effective legal representation. (references) | |
Rwanda | The shortage of lawyers and the abject poverty of most defendants make it difficult for many defendants to obtain legal representation. (references) | |
Indigenous People | Panama | Although their population suffers from poverty and malnutrition, Kuna leaders have had the most success enforcing their territorial boundaries and maintaining their cultural integrity. (references) |
Ecuador | The vast majority reside in rural areas, including the highlands and the Amazonian provinces, and most live in varying degrees of poverty. (references) | |
Canada | Aboriginal persons remain underrepresented in the work force, overrepresented on welfare rolls and in prison populations, and more susceptible to suicide and poverty than other population groups. (references) | |
Minorities | Hungary | As of 2000, the Government reduced the limit on unemployment benefits from 1 year to 9 months, which affects the Romani community disproportionately and exacerbates the poverty of this large segment of society. (references) |
Colombia | The March 2000 report of the UNHCHR noted that an estimated 80 percent of Afro-Colombians live in conditions of extreme poverty, that 74 percent receive wages below the legal minimum, and that their municipalities have the highest rates of poverty. (references) | |
Ecuador | They suffer widespread poverty and pervasive discrimination, particularly with regard to educational and economic opportunity. (references) | |
Political Economy | PAKISTAN | If Pakistan successfully negotiates a multi-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility with the IMF, it will seek additional debt relief within the Paris Club. (references) |
PERU | Peru's macroeconomic stability has brought about a substantial reduction of the high underemployment rate, from 74 percent during the late 1980's and early 1990's to 43 percent in 2000. Poverty has also gone down since 1991, but unofficial sources estimate that 50 percent of the population still lives in poverty and 15 percent lives in extreme poverty. (references) | |
PHILIPPINES | Since 1997, the Asian financial crisis, extreme weather disturbances, political uncertainties, poor public sector governance, and a high population growth rate have resulted in a rise in poverty and increasingly inequitable income distribution in the Philippines. (references) | |
Trade | Brazil | About 60% of the Bank's resources in FY 2001 focus on targeted poverty reduction, such as education, health, rural development and water/sanitation. (references) |
Indonesia | Every ADB-supported project reduces poverty as it fosters sustainable economic growth, social benefits and good governance. (references) | |
Pakistan | The Bank's medium-term strategy focuses on poverty reduction, improving the status of women, population planning and environmental protection. (references) | |
Women | South Africa | Recent studies have shown a connection between women and the likelihood of poverty. (references) |
Barbados | Prostitution is illegal, but it is a problem, fueled by poverty and tourism. (references) | |
South Africa | A women's NGO reported that female-headed households have a 50 percent higher incidence of poverty than male-headed households; that a high proportion of working women live in poor households; and that 61 percent of the elderly poor are women. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Burma | Government authorities often allowed households or persons to substitute money or food for contributions of labor for infrastructure projects, but widespread rural poverty forced most households to contribute labor. (references) |
Mauritania | In 1999 the Government created a new cabinet post, the Commissariat for Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Integration. (references) | |
Burma | There also is internal trafficking of women and girls from areas of extreme poverty to areas in which prostitution is common, primarily in major cities and along the borders with Thailand, China, and India. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | EJECTION, n. An approved remedy for the disease of garrulity. It is also much used in cases of extreme poverty. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Linda Thompson | Oh, he revolutionized music. You know, he was this young kid from abject poverty who grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee, and you know, was an amalgamation of lots of different styles of music, from black gospel to, you know, hillbilly. |
Rush Limbaugh | You liberals think the whole world is in poverty, except for a few rich Republican business owners. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | All experience proves that oppressive debt is the bane of enterprise, and it should be the care of a republic not to exert a grinding power over misfortune and poverty. |
Herbert C. Hoover | 1929-1933 | Through liberation from widespread poverty we have reached a higher degree of individual freedom than ever before. |
Harry S. Truman | 1945-1953 | Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas. |
John F. Kennedy | 1961-1963 | Neither money nor technical assistance, however, can be our only weapon against poverty. |
Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963-1969 | But far too many are still trapped in poverty and idleness and fear. |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | There are also persistent problems of poverty and economic stagnation in other parts of rural America. |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | Well, too often it has only made poverty harder to escape. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | Let's not punish poverty and past mistakes. |
George W. Bush | 2001-2005 | Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen to those who do. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Poverty" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.97% of the time. "Poverty" is used about 3,113 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.97% | 3,112 | 3,018 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.03% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 3,113 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "poverty". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Adaliah | N/A | Biblical | Poverty |
| Anammelech | N/A | Biblical | Poverty of the king |
| Anathoth | N/A | Biblical | Poverty |
| Boskath | N/A | Biblical | In poverty |
| Jambres | N/A | Biblical | Poverty |
| Jaresiah | N/A | Biblical | Poverty |
| Machbenah | N/A | Biblical | Poverty |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
Expressions using "poverty": abject poverty ♦ alleviate poverty ♦ be unacquainted with poverty ♦ bring to poverty ♦ die in utter poverty ♦ eradicate poverty ♦ feminisation of poverty ♦ genteel poverty ♦ grinding poverty ♦ in poverty ♦ live in extreme poverty ♦ live in poverty ♦ poverty adjustment ♦ poverty alleviation ♦ Poverty Areas ♦ poverty belt ♦ poverty engenders crime ♦ poverty grass ♦ poverty is no crime ♦ poverty level ♦ poverty line ♦ poverty of blood ♦ poverty passport ♦ poverty rate ♦ poverty ridden ♦ poverty stricken ♦ poverty trap ♦ profound poverty. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "poverty": poverty-environment, poverty-induced, poverty-level, poverty-line, poverty-prayers, poverty-ridden, poverty-stricken, poverty-striken, poverty-struck, poverty-trap. | |
Ending with "poverty": anti-poverty, near-poverty. | |
Containing "poverty": below-the-poverty-line. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
poverty | 1,176 | poverty point | 27 |
southern poverty law center | 157 | poverty and crime | 27 |
federal poverty level | 122 | culture of poverty | 25 |
poverty level | 119 | federal line poverty | 24 |
child poverty | 111 | global poverty | 22 |
poverty picture | 94 | poverty in the us | 22 |
migration poverty | 76 | poverty in mexico | 21 |
federal guidelines poverty | 69 | poverty rate | 20 |
poverty statistics | 63 | poverty in india | 20 |
world poverty | 58 | bike poverty | 19 |
poverty line | 52 | poverty photo | 19 |
poverty in america | 51 | definition poverty | 18 |
guidelines poverty | 44 | essay poverty | 18 |
canada in poverty | 42 | article poverty | 18 |
cause of poverty | 41 | level national poverty | 18 |
poverty and education | 38 | effects of poverty | 18 |
war on poverty | 32 | brazil in poverty | 17 |
poverty in the united state | 30 | income level poverty | 17 |
poverty in africa | 29 | solution to poverty | 17 |
child in poverty | 29 | feminization of poverty | 16 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "poverty"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | armoede. (various references) | |
Albanian | vobekësi, varfëri (beggary, hardship, indigence, infertility, manginess, misery, necessity, need, pauperism, penury, poorness, squalor, want), skamje (destitution, indigence, necessity, need, penury), mungesë (absence, absentness, dearth, deficiency, deficit, destitution, lack, Miss, non-attendance, scarcity, shortcoming, short-fall, want, Wantage), fukarallëk. (various references) | |
Arabic | فقر (beggar, destitution, impoverish, indigence, lack, need, neediness, pauperism, penury, poorness, ruin, want), ندرة (drought, famine, paucity, penury, rareness, rarity, scarceness, tightness), حاجة (bareness, deficiency, necessity, need, requirement, want), عوز (destitution, distress, indigence, lack, misery, necessity, need, paucity, pauperism, poorness, privation, want), عسر (difficulty, distress), جدب (sterility, sterilize, waterless), بؤس (misery, penury, squalor, unhappiness, wretchedness). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | нищета (beggary, degradation, deprivation, destitution, distress, extremity, indigence, misery, necessity), мизерия (dunghill, gutter, misery, necessity, squalor), липса (absence, default, defect, deficiency, failure, lack, penury, privation, scarcity, shortage, shortcoming, stringency, ullage, want), бедност (destitution, necessity, pauperism, poorness, want). (various references) | |
Chinese | 贫穷 (impecunious, Needy). (various references) | |
Czech | nouze (deprivation, destitution, distress, indigence, necessities, need, needs, pinch, privation, scarcity, want), nedostatek (absence, defect, deficiency, deficit, demerit, drawback, failing, failure, fault, inadequacy, insufficiency, lack, non-availability, penury, privation, scarcity, shortage, shortcoming, want), chudoba (penury, poorness), bída (beggary, deprivation, destitution, misery, squalor, want). (various references) | |
Danish | fattigdom. (various references) | |
Dutch | gebrek (absence, damage, deficiency, lack, shortage, shortcoming, vice), armoede. (various references) | |
Esperanto | malriĉeco. (various references) | |
Farsi | فلاکت (Adversity), فقر (Depauperation), کمیابی (Infrequency, Paucity, Rarity, Scarcity), تهیدستی , تندگستی , بینواءی . (various references) | |
Finnish | puutteenalaisuus (destitution, need), varattomuus (lack of means), kurjuus (destitution, misery, wretchedness), köyhyys (want). (various references) | |
French | pauvreté (poorness), sécheresse, rareté, misère, indigence, destitution. (various references) | |
Frisian | earmoed (misery). (various references) | |
German | Armut (destitution, impecuniousness, indigence, lack, necessity, neediness, pennilessness, penury, poorness, privation), verarmt (becomes impoverished, destitute, impoverished). (various references) | |
Greek | φτώχεια (distress, poorness). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מכות (impoverishment), מסכ ות (beggary, indigence, squalor, wretchedness), קבצ ות (beggary, mendicancy), עו י (indigence, meanness, misery, pauperism, penury, poorness, privation, want), ע יות (misery), אביו ות (beggary, destitution, pauperism), "לות (indigence, leanness, meanness, poorness), "ל"ול (atrophy, degeneration, depletion, exhaustion, slack, weakness), "חקות (distress), רישות, ריש (destitution, penury). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szegénység (beggary, destitution, gutter, indigence, necessity, need, pauperism, pauperization, penury, poorness), nyomor (destitution, extremity, misery, necessity, penury, privation, squalor, want), nincstelenség. (various references) | |
Indonesian | kepapaan (destitution), kemiskinan (beggary, destitution), kemelaratan, kefakiran (destitution). (various references) | |
Italian | povert (destitution, need, poorness, shabbiness). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 窮乏. (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きゅうぼう, き"けつびょう, び"ぼう (destitute, poor), び" (becoming poor, bottle, chance, flight, letter, living in poverty, mail, opportunity, post, service), ひ""" (lack), ひ" (article, becoming poor, counter for meal courses, dignity, goods, living in poverty, thing), ""きゅう (distress). (various references) | |
Korean | 빈곤. (various references) | |
Manx | tiarkid (fewness, paucity, scarceness), boghtynid (jargon, need, nonsense, shabbiness), boghtinys, anverchys (indigence). (various references) | |
Norwegian | fattigdom. (various references) | |
Papiamen | pobresa. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | overtypay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pobreza (bareness, destitution, indigence, narrow circumstances, penurity, penury, poorness, sorriness). (various references) | |
Romanian | sãrãcie (baldness, barrenness, dearth, destitution, impecuniosity, indigence, meanness, misery, necessity, neediness, privation, scantiness, scarceness, scarcity, sterility, stringency, want), nevoie (business, call, demand, destitution, difficulty, lack, necessity, need, straits, trouble, want), neproductivitate, mizerie (atrocity, beggary, depth, distress, indigence, misery, pauperism, poorness, squalidity, squalor, troubles, want), lipsã (absence, blemish, dearth, default, defect, deficiency, demerit, destitution, drawback, failure, fault, gap, hardship, imperfection, lack, minus, mistake, necessity, neediness, out, paucity, penury, privation, scantiness, scarceness, shortage, shortcoming, stinginess, stringency, vice, want), calicie, absenţã (absence, default, privation, shortage, wanting). (various references) | |
Russian | бедность (indigence, lean purse, light purse, misery, penury, poorness, slender purse, tenuity). (various references) | |
Scottish | uireasbhuidh (indigence, need, want), d ibhreas, airc (distress, hardship), aimbeart (distress, indigence, want). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | siromaštvo (beggary, deprivation, destitution, indigence, pauperism, poorness), nemaština (distress, indigence, need). (various references) | |
Spanish | pobreza (indigence, neediness, penury, poorness, shabbiness, want). (various references) | |
Swahili | umaskini. (various references) | |
Swedish | fattigdom (destitution, indigence, necessity, pauperism, penury, poorness), armod (beggary, destitution, neediness, penury). (various references) | |
Turkish | parasızlık (being without money, embarrassment, indigence, pennilessness), yoksulluk (bareness, calamity, destitution, hardship, misery, need, neediness, pauperism, penury, poorness, privation), yokluk (absence, absentness, dearth, exiguity, failure, famine, hardship, lack, neediness, nonappearance, non-appearance, nonexistence, non-existence, nudity, penury, privation, shortage, Strait, straits, tightness, want), yetersizlik (deficiency, disability, disablement, flimsiness, handicap, inability, inadequacy, incapability, incapacity, incompetence, inefficacy, insufficiency, littleness, paucity, poorness, scantiness, scantness, slenderness, slimness, spareness), sefalet (beggary, calamity, dog's life, misery, sordidness, squalidity, squalidness, squalor, wretchedness), fakirlik (beggary, indigence, nudity, pauperism, poorness, want), eksiklik (dearth, defalcation, defect, defectiveness, deficiency, deficit, desideratum, failing, failure, flimsiness, imperfection, inadequacy, incompetence, insufficiency, lack, Lacuna, lameness, negation, shortage, shortcoming, shortness, sketchiness, void), düşkünlük (addiction, affection, decay, devotion, dotage, fanaticism, fixation, fondness, keenness, mania, partiality). (various references) | |
Turkmen | pukaralyk, яokluk (absence), garyplyk. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | убогість (baldness, bareness, leanness, scantiness), недостача (absence, dearth, failure, lack, need, non-availability, penury, scarcity, shortage, shortcoming, shortfall, shortness, want), бідність (bareness, humility, meanness, misery, necessity, need, penury, poorness, shabbiness, tenuity, underprivilege). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự thiếu thốn (meagreness, paucity, penuriousness, scarcity), sự thấp kém, sự t"i t n (dreariness), sự nghèo n n (miserableness), cảnh nghèo n n. (various references) | |
Welsh | tlodi (beggar, impoverish), llymder (asperity, bareness, keenness, severity, sharpness). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | ukur. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Bromus sterilis L., egestas, egestate, egestatem, egestatis, ieiunitas, indigentia, inopia, inopiae, inopiam, macie, necessitas, necessitate, necessitatem, necessitates, necessitati, necessitatibus, necessitatis, necessitudine, pauperies, paupertas, paupertate, paupertatem, paupertatis, paupertatula. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Proverbs Chapter 31, Verse 7 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Ina epilaqwntai thV peniaV kai twn ponwn mh mnhsqwsin eti |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Bibant ut obliviscantur egestatis suae et doloris non recordentur amplius |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | Drinke thei, and foryete thei of ther nedynesse; and of ther sorewe recorde thei no more. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | Let him have drink, and his need will go from his mind, and the memory of his trouble will be gone. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Proverbs Chapter 31, Verse 7 |
| Cebuano | Paimna siya, ug pahikalimti ang iyang kakabus, Ug ayaw na pagpahinumdumi ang iyang pagka-makalolooy. |
| Croatian | on æe piti i zaboraviti svoju bijedu i neæe se više sjeæati svoje nevolje. |
| Danish | lad ham drikke og glemme sin Fattigdom, ej mer ihukomme sin Møje. |
| Dutch | Dat hij drinke, en zijn armoede vergete, en zijner moeite niet meer gedenke. |
| Finnish | Sellainen juokoon ja unhottakoon köyhyytensä älköönkä enää vaivaansa muistelko. |
| French | Qu`il boive et oublie sa pauvreté, Et qu`il ne se souvienne plus de ses peines. |
| German | daß sie trinken und ihres Elends vergessen und ihres Unglücks nicht mehr gedenken. |
| Haitian Creole | Yo bwè pou yo bliye mizè yo, pou yo pa chonje lapenn yo. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Mereka minum untuk melupakan kemiskinan dan kesusahan mereka. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Biarlah ia minum serta melupakan celakanya dan tiada ia teringat lagi akan kesukarannya. |
| Maori | Tukua ia kia inu, kia wareware ai ki tona rawakore, a kore ake he mahara ki ona mate. |
| Norwegian | La ham få drikke, så han glemmer sin fattigdom og ikke mere kommer sin møie i hu! |
| Portuguese | Bebam e se esqueçam da sua pobreza, e da sua miséria não se lembrem mais. |
| Rumanian | ca sq bea sq-wi uite sqrqcia, wi sq nu-wi mai aducq aminte de necazurile lui. - |
| Russian | ХУФШ ПО ЧЩ ШЕФ Й ЪБ'Х"ЕФ 'Е"ОПУФШ УЧПА Й ОЕ ЧУ ПНОЙФ 'ПМШЫЕ П УЧПЕН УФТБ"БОЙЙ. |
| Spanish | Beban y olvídense de su necesidad, y no se acuerden más de su miseria. |
| Swedish | Må dessa dricka och förgäta sitt armod och höra upp att tänka på sin vedermöda. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words ending with "poverty": antipoverty. (additional references) | |
| |
"Poverty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Pavitra, Peverey, pevert, poberty, pooperty, poverte, povet, provery, puverty, pvert. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "poverty" (pronounced pÄ"vertē) |
| 6 | p Ä" v er t ē | antipoverty. |
| 3 | -er t ē | entirety, liberty, property, puberty. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-o-p-r-t-v-y" | |
-1 letter: poetry. | |
-2 letters: overt, prove, repot, ropey, tepoy, toper, toyer, trope, trove, voter. | |
-3 letters: over, oyer, pert, poet, pore, port, prey, pyre, repo, rope, ropy, rote, rove, ryot, tope, tore, tory, trey, trop, troy, tyer, type, typo, tyre, tyro, vert, very, veto, vote, yore. | |
-4 letters: ope, opt, ore, ort, per, pet, pot, pro, pry, pye. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-o-p-r-t-v-y" | |
+3 letters: sportively. | |
+4 letters: antipoverty, operatively, overpayment, providently. | |
+5 letters: corruptively, overcapacity, overpayments, pejoratively, postdelivery, preovulatory, productively, projectively, protectively, protensively, protrusively, vituperatory. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Historic 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Spoken | 13. Quotations: Speeches 14. Usage Frequency 15. Names: Derived from 16. Expressions | 17. Expressions: Internet 18. Translations: Modern 19. Translations: Ancient 20. Bible Trace | 21. Derivations 22. Rhymes 23. Anagrams 24. Bibliography |
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