PENURY Synonyms: 37 Similar and Opposite Words

Q: How is the word 'penury' distinct from other similar nouns?

Some common synonyms of penury are destitution , indigence , poverty , and want . While all these words mean "the state of one with insufficient resources," penury suggests a cramping or oppressive lack of money. // a catastrophic illness that condemned them to years of penury

Q: Where would 'indigence' be a reasonable alternative to 'penury'?

The words indigence and penury are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, indigence implies seriously straitened circumstances. // the indigence of her years as a graduate student

Q: When could 'poverty' be used to replace 'penury'?

In some situations, the words poverty and penury are roughly equivalent. However, poverty may cover a range from extreme want of necessities to an absence of material comforts. // the extreme poverty of the slum dwellers

Q: How are the words 'want' and 'destitution' related as synonyms of 'penury'?

Both want and destitution imply extreme poverty that threatens life itself through starvation or exposure. // lived in a perpetual state of want // the widespread destitution in countries beset by famine

penury

noun

ˈpen-yə-rē

Definition of penury next

as in poverty

the state of lacking sufficient money or material possessions lived in a time when single women like herself faced a lifetime of genteel penury

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How is the word penury distinct from other similar nouns?

Some common synonyms of penury are destitution, indigence, poverty, and want. While all these words mean "the state of one with insufficient resources," penury suggests a cramping or oppressive lack of money.

a catastrophic illness that condemned them to years of penury

Where would indigence be a reasonable alternative to penury?

The words indigence and penury are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, indigence implies seriously straitened circumstances.

the indigence of her years as a graduate student

When could poverty be used to replace penury?

In some situations, the words poverty and penury are roughly equivalent. However, poverty may cover a range from extreme want of necessities to an absence of material comforts.

the extreme poverty of the slum dwellers

How are the words want and destitution related as synonyms of penury?

Both want and destitution imply extreme poverty that threatens life itself through starvation or exposure.

lived in a perpetual state of want

the widespread destitution in countries beset by famine

Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of penury The Legislature, governor and unions need to respect our labor and not tax us into penury. —

The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 28 Aug. 2025 To give up their academic positions was to invite another round of penury, this time as men in their fifties. —

Literary Hub, 28 May 2025 Knowing that Jane Austen never got her own Pemberley, and seeing the penury and leaking roofs portrayed, are very different things. —

Kim Campbell, Christian Science Monitor, 1 May 2025 But the mass of the population remained trapped in rural penury or urban favelas, while the fortunate few soared over the country’s ungovernable megacities in private helicopters. —

Jonathan Tepperman, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2015 See All Example Sentences for penury

Recent Examples of Synonyms for penury

Noun

North Side schools have remained dominant in bringing in this outside funding, but some higher-poverty South and West Side campuses such as Kenwood increasingly held their own.

— Mila Koumpilova, Chicago Tribune, 22 June 2026
Those concerns already exist within New Haven, and leaders would need to balance the existence of more than $1 billion in combined economic investment into local quantum efforts with the needs of a city where one quarter of residents lived in poverty in 2023.

— P.R. Lockhart, Hartford Courant, 22 June 2026