POOR
Dictionary entry overview: What does poor mean?
• POOR (noun)
The noun POOR has 1 sense:
1. people without possessions or wealth (considered as a group)
Familiarity information: POOR used as a noun is very rare.
• POOR (adjective)
The adjective POOR has 6 senses:
1. deserving or inciting pity
2. having little money or few possessions
3. characterized by or indicating poverty
4. lacking in specific resources, qualities or substances
5. not sufficient to meet a need
6. unsatisfactory
Familiarity information: POOR used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
• POOR (noun)
Meaning:
People without possessions or wealth (considered as a group)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Synonyms:
poor; poor people
Context example:
the urban poor need assistance
Hypernyms ("poor" is a kind of...):
people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)
Domain usage:
plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "poor"):
homeless (people who are homeless)
needy (needy people collectively)
Antonym:
rich (people who have possessions and wealth (considered as a group))
• POOR (adjective)
Meaning:
Deserving or inciting pity
Synonyms:
poor; piteous; pathetic; misfortunate; hapless; miserable; pitiable; pitiful; wretched
Context examples:
a hapless victim / miserable victims of war / the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic / piteous appeals for help / pitiable homeless children / a pitiful fate / Oh, you poor thing / his poor distorted limbs / a wretched life
Similar:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Meaning:
Having little money or few possessions
Context examples:
deplored the gap between rich and poor countries / the proverbial poor artist living in a garret
Similar:
unprovided for (without income or means)
moneyless (having no money)
hard up; impecunious; in straitened circumstances; penniless; penurious; pinched (not having enough money to pay for necessities)
destitute; impoverished; indigent; necessitous; needy; poverty-stricken (poor enough to need help from others)
broke; bust; skint; stone-broke; stony-broke (lacking funds)
Also:
underprivileged (lacking the rights and advantages of other members of society)
Attribute:
economic condition; financial condition (the condition of finances)
Antonym:
rich (possessing material wealth)
Meaning:
Characterized by or indicating poverty
Context examples:
the country had a poor economy / they lived in the poor section of town
Similar:
beggarly; mean (marked by poverty befitting a beggar)
slummy ((of housing or residential areas) indicative of poverty)
Antonym:
rich (suggestive of or characterized by great expense)
Meaning:
Lacking in specific resources, qualities or substances
Context examples:
a poor land / the area was poor in timber and coal / food poor in nutritive value
Similar:
hardscrabble (yielding little by great labor)
resourceless (lacking or deficient in natural resources)
Antonym:
rich (having an abundant supply of desirable qualities or substances (especially natural resources))
Meaning:
Not sufficient to meet a need
Synonyms:
inadequate; short; poor
Context examples:
an inadequate income / a poor salary / money is short / on short rations / food is in short supply / short on experience
Similar:
deficient; insufficient (of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement)
Meaning:
Unsatisfactory
Context examples:
a poor light for reading / poor morale / expectations were poor
Similar:
bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)
