as in impoverished
lacking money or material possessions
went from being a penniless girl to owner of her own restaurant
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Recent Examples of penniless
Arnaz’s maternal grandfather, Alberto de Acha, was an executive at rum producer Bacardi & Co.
The man born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III in Santiago de Cuba on March 2, 1917, arrived penniless in Miami before his 17th birthday.
—
Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 19 June 2025
If Jeff Bezos moves to impoverished West Virginia to start a business next week, capital flows into the Mountain State will be staggeringly large, and that’s true even if Bezos arrives penniless.
—John Tamny, Forbes.com, 18 June 2025
Meanwhile, Andrea was left nearly penniless to care for their four children, the youngest of whom was 3 at the time, and had to quickly figure out how the rest of her life would go.
—Meredith Wilshere, People.com, 8 June 2025
To these penniless and amiably drunken men, every boozy beverage is always the last one — truly, for real this time, the last one — until the next one that usually comes right after.
—Tomris Laffly, Variety, 25 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for penniless
Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 19 June 2025
If Jeff Bezos moves to impoverished West Virginia to start a business next week, capital flows into the Mountain State will be staggeringly large, and that’s true even if Bezos arrives penniless.
—John Tamny, Forbes.com, 18 June 2025
Meanwhile, Andrea was left nearly penniless to care for their four children, the youngest of whom was 3 at the time, and had to quickly figure out how the rest of her life would go.
—Meredith Wilshere, People.com, 8 June 2025
To these penniless and amiably drunken men, every boozy beverage is always the last one — truly, for real this time, the last one — until the next one that usually comes right after.
—Tomris Laffly, Variety, 25 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for penniless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for penniless
Adjective
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But the Shah’s failure to provide support to the peasants led to their farms failing, and sent waves of impoverished migrants to Tehran and other Iranian cities—many of whom would later fuel the 1979 revolution.—
Nik Kowsar,
Time,
2 Oct. 2025
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Her existence in the vibrant capital city of Sepphoris brings into questions some of our traditional assumptions of Mary as an impoverished illiterate from a backwater rural village with no exposure to Greco-Roman culture.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Similar protests occurred in Brazil over steep living costs and poor healthcare and education ahead of the country hosting the 2014 World Cup tournament.—
Connor Greene,
Time,
2 Oct. 2025
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Over time, dysfunctional breathing reinforces poor posture and scapular instability.—
Dana Santas,
CNN Money,
2 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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For some irony, given the licensing deal with Netflix, Korvo and Terry announce that the Solar Opposites are broke, with all of their moneymaking machines zapped.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
29 Sep. 2025
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In another magical Miami tale, a broke witch who works in a spellshop and an adjunct professor who’s secretly a popular himbo mage team up to win a spellcasting reality show competition — except someone is sabotaging the contestants’ work.—
Lia Amador,
PEOPLE,
20 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Penniless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/penniless. Accessed 5 Oct. 2025.
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