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poor

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Having little money or few possessions.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

poor
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpuɹ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Having little money or few possessions

    “Deplored the gap between rich and poor countries.”

  2. With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.

  3. Lacking in quality or substances

  4. attributive only

    Worthy of pity.

  5. Of low quality.

  6. Inadequate, insufficient.

noun

  1. with the

    The poor people of a society or the world collectively, the poor class of a society.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Having little money or few possessions

Used this way, poor is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“Deplored the gap between rich and poor countries.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use poor

  • “We were so poor that we couldn't afford shoes.”adjective
  • “I received a poor reward for all my hard work.”adjective
  • “Cow's milk is poor in iron.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

poor lawpoor qualitypoor fellowpoor womanpoor healthpoor girlpoor performance

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • poorlyadverbDerived adverb

    In a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • poor devilnounCompound term

    Someone you feel sorry for.

  • poor fishnounCompound term

    A person who is not very bright.

  • poor lawnounCompound term

    A law providing support for the poor.

  • poor man's orchidnounCompound term

    Any plant of the genus Schizanthus having finely divided leaves and showy variegated flowers.

  • poor man's pulsenounCompound term

    Twining herb of Old World tropics cultivated in India for food and fodder.

  • poor man's weatherglassnounCompound term

    Herb with scarlet or white or purple blossoms that close at approach of rainy weather.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: poor people of a society

mediocre

Antonyms

adjective

Sense: having little money or few possessions

rich

noun

Sense: poor people of a society

rich

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Looking for a more precise alternative? “poor” can mean several things.

poorshoddyunkindmisguideddire

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.