Meaning & use
indigence
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A state of extreme poverty or lack of the means to subsist.
See it in a sentence
Years of unemployment and debt had driven the family into indigence.
The charity was founded to relieve the indigence of elderly widows in the city.
A note on using this word
Indigence comes from the Latin indigere, "to lack or need," and is a more formal, literary term than plain "poverty."
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