Meaning & use
impoverished
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Very poor, with little money or means to buy what is needed.
Grammar: Before a noun or after a linking verb: an impoverished family, the town became impoverished.
Patterns
- an impoverished family
- become impoverished
The charity serves impoverished families in the city.
After years of war, the region was impoverished.
He grew up in an impoverished village with no school.
adjectivecomparablefigurative
Lacking something valuable, such as nutrients, variety, or richness.
Grammar: Often followed by in or of: impoverished in nutrients.
Patterns
- impoverished in something
- an impoverished imagination
The soil is impoverished after years of planting one crop.
A diet impoverished in vitamins can cause illness.
Without reading, our vocabulary becomes impoverished.
Word forms
| comparative | more impoverished |
|---|---|
| superlative | most impoverished |
Common combinations
- an impoverished family
- An impoverished family may skip meals to pay rent.
- impoverished area
- Clinics are rare in the impoverished area.
- impoverished soil
- Impoverished soil needs compost to grow vegetables.
- culturally impoverished
- A town without a library can feel culturally impoverished.
- leave impoverished
- The failed harvest left the farmers impoverished.
Synonyms and how they differ
- poor
- Poor is the everyday word, whereas impoverished is more formal and often implies being made poor by circumstances.
- destitute
- Destitute is stronger and means lacking even basic necessities such as food and shelter.
- penniless
- Penniless means having no money at all right now, and usually is about one person.
- deprived
- Deprived focuses on being denied needed things such as education or comfort, not just money.
Opposites
Word family
- impoverish verb
- to make someone or something poor
- impoverishment noun
- the state or process of becoming poor
- poor adjective
- having little money
- poverty noun
- the state of being very poor
Commonly confused: impoverished or imperfect?
impoverished vs imperfect
Imperfect means having flaws and has no link with poverty.
Practice
After years of overplanting, the farm's soil became ___ and produced weak crops.
Choose one answer.
Impoverished here means drained of the richness plants need. Improvised sounds similar but means made on the spot.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “impoverished”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.