Synonyms of poverty-stricken

poverty-stricken

adjective

ˈpä-vər-tē-ˌstri-kən 

as in impoverished

lacking money or material possessions

poverty-stricken immigrants struggling to make ends meet

Synonyms & Similar Words

• impoverished
• poor
• broke
• dirt-poor
• indigent
• bankrupt
• penniless
• needy
• beggared
• impecunious
• deprived
• destitute
• down-and-out
• pauperized
• beggarly
• penurious
• needful
• depressed
• famished
• threadbare
• out of pocket
• out at elbows
• necessitous
• skint
• disadvantaged
• underprivileged
• hard up
• bankrupted
• distressed
• down on one's luck
• dispossessed
• insolvent
• hardscrabble
• ruined
• unaffluent
• hand-to-mouth
• poorish
• cash-strapped
• bust
• straitened
• reduced
• pinched
• short
• possessionless
• tapped out
• low

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• wealthy
• affluent
• rich
• well-to-do
• opulent
• fat
• moneyed
• flush
• well-off
• prosperous
• fat-cat
• silk-stocking
• comfortable
• well-heeled
• deep-pocketed

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of poverty-stricken

The family was poverty-stricken, living in a small apartment. — Jan Goldsmith, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 May 2026

During and after the Great Depression, the Tennessee Valley Authority built dozens of hydroelectric dams, bringing electricity and flood control to the most remote and poverty-stricken hollows of Appalachia. — Bill Kearney, Sun Sentinel, 29 June 2025

That’s a long way from living in motels and stealing steaks from grocery stores during his more humble days of being poverty-stricken. — Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News, 28 Feb. 2025

At the time, Whitechapel was poverty-stricken and overcrowded, with over 76,000 people populating its dilapidated avenues and dwellings. — Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 18 Jan. 2024