impoverished

adjective

im·​pov·​er·​ished im-ˈpä-v(ə-)risht 

1

: reduced to poverty : poor

an impoverished family/community

2

: exhausted of richness or fertility

impoverished soils

3

of a fauna or flora : represented by few species or individuals

Synonyms of impoverished

• poor
• broke
• beggared
• deprived
• bankrupt

Examples of impoverished in a Sentence

the widespread hope that the lottery's record-setting jackpot is won by an impoverished family

an impoverished field that over the years had been overgrazed

Recent Examples on the Web

As Richardson, a dancer, wrote in her biography, My Life in E-Flat, that area of the Lower East Side was Ukrainian and impoverished at the time, and the house had five families living in it, one per floor. —Kim Velsey, Curbed, 4 Dec. 2025

During that span, California has made little or no progress on the cost of living, housing and homelessness while remaining the most impoverished state in the nation. —U T Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Nov. 2025

East Palo Alto, the historically Black community surrounding the Meta campus, is one of the least gentrified, most impoverished places in the Valley—a 2017 study found that 42 percent of students in the local school district were homeless. —Literary Hub, 21 Nov. 2025

Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, Hamnet follows impoverished Latin tutor William Shakespeare (Mescal) and free-spirited Agnes (Buckley). —Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 20 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1611, in the meaning defined at sense 1