poorness
noun
Simple meaning
Being poorly made or maintained.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
poornuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpuɹnəs
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The quality of being poorly made or maintained
“She was unrecognizable because of the poorness of the photography.”
The quality of being meager
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The quality of being poorly made or maintained
Used this way, poorness is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“She was unrecognizable because of the poorness of the photography.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “poorness of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: poorness of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use poorness
- “The relative poorness of New England farmland.”noun
- “She was unrecognizable because of the poorness of the photography.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
In a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner.
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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.