Poverty

[pov-er-tee] /ˈpɒv ər ti/

noun
1.
the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.
Synonyms: privation, neediness, destitution, indigence, pauperism, penury.
Antonyms: riches, wealth, plenty.
2.
deficiency of necessary or desirable ingredients, qualities, etc.:
poverty of the soil.
Synonyms: thinness, poorness, insufficiency.
3.
scantiness; insufficiency:
Their efforts to stamp out disease were hampered by a poverty of medical supplies.
Synonyms: meagerness, inadequacy, sparseness, shortage, paucity, dearth.
Antonyms: abundance, surfeit, sufficiency, bounty, glut.
/ˈpɒvətɪ/
noun
1.
the condition of being without adequate food, money, etc
2.
scarcity or dearth: a poverty of wit
3.
a lack of elements conducive to fertility in land or soil
n.

late 12c., from Old French poverte “poverty, misery, wretched condition” (Modern French pauvreté), from Latin paupertatem (nominative paupertas) “poverty,” from pauper “poor” (see poor (adj.)).

Seeing so much poverty everywhere makes me think that God is not rich. He gives the appearance of it, but I suspect some financial difficulties. [Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables,” 1862]

Poverty line attested from 1901; poverty trap from 1966; poverty-stricken from 1803.