Meaning & use
poor
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Having very little money or few possessions, so that it is hard to live comfortably.
Grammar: Has poorer and poorest: a poor family, poorer than before.
Patterns
- poor in something
- grow up poor
They grew up poor, in a small apartment with five people.
The poorest families in the region struggle to pay for heating.
He felt guilty spending money when so many people were poor.
adjectivecomparable
Of a low level of quality, skill or success; not good enough.
Grammar: Can come before a noun or after be: poor health, the service was poor.
Patterns
- poor at something
- in poor condition
- poor quality
The restaurant received poor reviews because of its slow service.
I am poor at remembering names.
The road was in such poor condition that we had to drive slowly.
adjectivebefore a noun
Used to show pity or sympathy for someone who is unlucky or unhappy.
Grammar: Comes before the noun: the poor kitten.
Patterns
- poor thing
- poor little something
The poor kitten was soaked from the rain.
Poor Sam has to work all weekend.
Oh, you poor thing, you look exhausted.
adjectivecomparable
Containing little of something useful, such as soil that lacks nutrients.
Grammar: Often followed by in: poor in iron.
Patterns
- poor in something
The soil here is too poor for growing vegetables.
A diet poor in vitamins can cause health problems.
nounplural
People who have little money, taken as one group.
Grammar: Always the poor, with a plural verb: the poor are often hit hardest.
Patterns
- the poor
The charity serves hot meals to the poor every evening.
Taxes should not fall too heavily on the poor.
Word forms
| comparative | poorer |
|---|---|
| superlative | poorest |
Common combinations
- poor quality
- The shoes were of such poor quality that they fell apart.
- poor health
- She retired early because of poor health.
- poor performance
- The team's poor performance cost the coach his job.
- dirt poor
- His family was dirt poor when he was a boy.
- poor visibility
- Flights were delayed because of poor visibility.
- poor judgment
- Leaving the door open was poor judgment.
Synonyms and how they differ
- needy
- Needy suggests a lack of basic things and is often used in charity contexts, while poor is the plain everyday word.
- broke
- Broke is informal and usually means short of money for now, not long-term poverty.
- inferior
- Inferior is for comparing quality and means lower than something else, whereas poor means weak on its own.
- impoverished
- Impoverished is more formal and stresses a severe fall into poverty.
Opposites
Word family
- poorly adverb
- badly or not well
- poverty noun
- the state of having very little money
- poorness noun
- the quality of being poor, especially low quality
- impoverish verb
- to make someone poor
Commonly confused: poor or pour? poor or pore?
poor vs pour
Pour is to make a liquid flow, and in British English it can sound like poor, but the meanings are unrelated.
poor vs pore
A pore is a tiny hole in skin, or the verb pore over means to study closely.
Practice
I am very ___ at drawing, so please do not ask me to play the sketching game.
Choose one answer.
Poor at something is the correct pattern. Poorly is an adverb, bad takes at less naturally than poor in this fixed use, and low does not collocate with at.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “poor”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.