impoverishment

/ɪmˈpɑvrɪʃmənt/

Other forms: impoverishments

Impoverishment is the state or fact of being extremely poor. A neighborhood's impoverishment is sometimes obvious from its many abandoned buildings.

You can use the noun impoverishment to mean "poverty," and also the act of forcing someone into poverty. A despotic government's impoverishment of its own people can be a way to control the citizens. A situation can also cause impoverishment, such as a serious illness and lack of health insurance. The verb impoverish, or "make poor," comes from the Old French empoverir, "to make poor," from povre, "poor."

Definitions of impoverishment

1. noun

   the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions
   synonyms: poorness, poverty

   types:

   deprivation, neediness, privation, want

   a state of extreme poverty

   destitution

   a state without friends or money or prospects

   indigence, need, pauperisation, pauperism, pauperization, penury

   a state of extreme poverty or destitution

   impecuniousness, pennilessness, penuriousness

   a state of lacking money

   beggary, mendicancy, mendicity

   the state of being a beggar or mendicant

   type of:

   financial condition

   the condition of (corporate or personal) finances
2. noun

   the act of making someone poor
   synonyms: pauperisation, pauperization

   type of:

   deprivation, privation

   act of depriving someone of food or money or rights