poverty

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)The quality or state of being poor; lack of money

   “get into poverty”

   “get out of poverty”

   “escape from poverty”

   “From there Prince Rupert, the Royalist general and nephew of Charles I, demanded over £2,000 from the mayor of Leicester to pay the king's forces who were camped around Queniborough. The mayor, however, pleaded poverty and sent only £500.”

   “America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

2. (uncountable, usually)A deficiency of something needed or desired

   “poverty of soil”

   “poverty of the blood”

   “poverty of spirit”