as in impoverished
lacking money or material possessions
poverty-stricken immigrants struggling to make ends meet
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Recent Examples of poverty-stricken
During and after the Great Depression, the Tennessee Valley Authority built dozens of hydroelectric dams, bringing electricity and flood control to the most remote and poverty-stricken hollows of Appalachia.
—
Bill Kearney, Sun Sentinel, 29 June 2025
That’s a long way from living in motels and stealing steaks from grocery stores during his more humble days of being poverty-stricken.
—Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News, 28 Feb. 2025
At the time, Whitechapel was poverty-stricken and overcrowded, with over 76,000 people populating its dilapidated avenues and dwellings.
—Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 18 Jan. 2024
Bill Kearney, Sun Sentinel, 29 June 2025
That’s a long way from living in motels and stealing steaks from grocery stores during his more humble days of being poverty-stricken.
—Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News, 28 Feb. 2025
At the time, Whitechapel was poverty-stricken and overcrowded, with over 76,000 people populating its dilapidated avenues and dwellings.
—Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 18 Jan. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for poverty-stricken
Adjective
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Transposing the book onto a contemporary setting, Jude’s take centers on an impoverished Romanian migrant, Gianina, played by a sensational Ana Dumitrașcu, who finds work as a housekeeper and au pair for a smugly bourgeois-bohemian couple living in Bordeaux.—
Christopher Vourlias,
Variety,
11 June 2026
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To ease the financial burden on the most impoverished, the government said tax exemptions would apply to micro-enterprises and those earning less than $680 a month.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
11 June 2026
Adjective
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The second didn’t go nearly as well for Bussi as Karlsson and Howden scored on two of the Golden Knights’ six shots in the period to tie the score at 3-3 heading into the third, the tying goal coming off a Seth Jarvis turnover and a couple of poor defensive plays by Sean Walker and K’Andre Miller.—
Michael Russo,
New York Times,
10 June 2026
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Heat radiates from the pages of this extraordinary novel about a poor family in rural Mississippi in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Poverty-stricken.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poverty-stricken. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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