Synonyms of impoverished

impoverished 1 of 2

adjective

im-ˈpä-v(ə-)risht 

1

as in poor

lacking money or material possessions

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

• poor
• broke
• beggared
• deprived
• bankrupt
• needy
• poverty-stricken
• indigent
• penniless
• destitute
• dirt-poor
• pauperized
• impecunious
• bankrupted
• needful
• depressed
• down-and-out
• penurious
• famished
• beggarly
• necessitous
• disadvantaged
• out of pocket
• threadbare
• out at elbows
• hard up
• skint
• underprivileged
• distressed
• dispossessed
• ruined
• down on one's luck
• insolvent
• unaffluent
• reduced
• hardscrabble
• pinched
• poorish
• short
• cash-strapped
• bust
• straitened
• hand-to-mouth
• possessionless
• low
• tapped out

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• wealthy
• affluent
• rich
• well-to-do
• moneyed
• opulent
• fat
• flush
• well-off
• prosperous
• comfortable
• well-heeled
• fat-cat
• silk-stocking
• deep-pocketed

2

as in desolate

producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation

an impoverished field that over the years had been overgrazed

Synonyms & Similar Words

• desolate
• barren
• poor
• bleak
• waste
• hardscrabble
• unproductive
• infertile
• bony
• unfertile
• stark
• dry
• desert
• inhospitable
• dead
• thirsty
• lifeless
• depleted
• exhausted
• drained
• debilitated
• enfeebled
• diminished
• consumed
• reduced
• uncultivable
• arid
• spent
• untillable
• bankrupted
• dehydrated
• droughty
• lessened
• expended
• waterless
• parched
• sere
• rainless
• sunbaked
• baked
• dried-up
• used up

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• rich
• productive
• fertile
• fruitful
• lush
• luxuriant
• arable
• green
• tillable
• verdant
• sylvan

impoverished

2 of 2

verb

past tense of impoverish

1

as in pauperized

Related Words

• pauperized
• ruined
• beggared
• reduced
• bankrupted
• busted
• broke
• wiped out
• cleaned (out)
• straitened

Dissimilar Words

• enriched
• richened

2

as in depleted

Related Words

• depleted
• exhausted
• consumed
• spent
• lost
• wasted
• squandered
• dissipated
• splurged
• overspent
• misspent
• lavished
• threw away
• frittered (away)
• ran through
• shot
• overindulged
• indulged
• fiddled away
• disbursed
• blew
• expended
• trifled (away)
• laid out

Dissimilar Words

• protected
• preserved
• saved
• hoarded
• laid up
• conserved
• economized
• scrimped
• skimped

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of impoverished

Adjective

Powerfully addictive crack cocaine swept though impoverished urban neighborhoods, empowering a new, more ruthless, better armed class of criminals, bringing predictable devastation. —Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026

An education advocate, Jackson founded the PUSH/Excel program to motivate Black and impoverished students to achieve excellence through schooling. —Charlotte Observer, 17 Feb. 2026

Education isn’t a cure-all; North Korea appears to have decent schools yet is impoverished and totalitarian. —Nicholas D. Kristof, Mercury News, 11 Feb. 2026

When Heathcliff, a foundling, discovers that Cathy Earnshaw, the daughter of the impoverished Yorkshire lord who’s taken him in, has played a prank on him by putting eggs in his beds to be crushed, the boy plunges his fingers into the slippery puddle of yolk and albumen left behind. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 9 Feb. 2026