as in beggar
old-fashioned
a very poor person who has no money to pay for food, clothing, etc.
a story about a rich man and a pauper who switch places
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pauper
In fact many of the characters—even Big Gunna, one of the great larger-than-life paupers of Laxness’s oeuvre—did live in Mosfellsdalur and went by the names Laxness gives them in the book.
—
Literary Hub,
11 Feb. 2026
Tate eventually moved in with her family, who rejected Austen; Austen moved to the Staten Island Farm Colony, a pauper’s hospital.
—
Molly Fischer,
New Yorker,
22 Nov. 2025
When the new sections were added, the old burying ground became a pauper's cemetery for poor White and and Black residents.
—
Alexandria Burris,
IndyStar,
14 Nov. 2025
Brian Niccol, the coffee chain boss, is paid a pauper’s sum of nearly $100 million.
—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pauper
Literary Hub,
11 Feb. 2026
Tate eventually moved in with her family, who rejected Austen; Austen moved to the Staten Island Farm Colony, a pauper’s hospital.
—
Molly Fischer,
New Yorker,
22 Nov. 2025
When the new sections were added, the old burying ground became a pauper's cemetery for poor White and and Black residents.
—
Alexandria Burris,
IndyStar,
14 Nov. 2025
Brian Niccol, the coffee chain boss, is paid a pauper’s sum of nearly $100 million.
—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pauper
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pauper
Noun
-
Gobert was chief among the beggars imploring his teammates for a shred of consistency on that end of the floor.
-
Antinous later shocked the other suitors by insulting and assaulting with a footstool an elderly beggar who had spoken to him in the palace hall.
Noun
-
Lower than proletariat workers, the lumpenproletariat includes the indigent and the unemployable, those cast out of the workforce with no recourse, or those who can’t enter it in the first place, such as young workers in times of economic depression.
Noun
-
Historically in Chicago, parent fundraising has been a story of have versus have-not schools, a dynamic threatening to drive deeper inequity in a segregated district.
-
Because once a workforce splits into AI haves and have-nots, rebuilding organizational trust becomes far harder than deploying technology in the first place.
Cite this Entry
“Pauper.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pauper. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
