poor

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
They say that the poor are the friends of the poor, and I told you how poor we were in those days!

View all »
Definitions (51)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. adjective Having little or no wealth and few or no possessions.
  2. adjective Lacking in a specified resource or quality: an area poor in timber and coal; a diet poor in calcium.
  3. adjective Not adequate in quality; inferior: a poor performance.
9 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (30)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (7)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • I can see why the poor are there, but what about the super-rich, what are they for exactly, what purpose do they have, do we need them? —  AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed
  • A broader form of wealth confiscation capable of tapping even the poor was accomplished by currency debasement and extreme examples in ripping off everyone provoked severe social disorder. —  The Big Picture
  • As they report in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they have found that the reduced capacity of the memories of the poor is almost certainly the result of stress affecting the way that childish brains develop. —  Core Economics
  • Remember the poor are the very same people who are responsible for the housing debacle and the economic meltdown-plus since they don't pay any taxes-how can you give them a tax cut? —  Polstate.com
  • Welfare for the poor has been a lightening rod for controversy because it is conspicuous. —  National Coalition for History
More examples »
 

Tags

poor hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 155 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

old ·  young ·  weak ·  miserable ·  stupid

Used in the same contextWord Family

poor:   poorer ·  poorest
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English poure, from Old French povre, from Latin pauper; see pau-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English pour, poure, pore, pover, povere, povre, from Old French povre, poure, povere, French pauvre = Spanish Portuguese pobre = Italian povero, from Latin pauper, poor: see pauper.
  2. poor, adjective
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/pur/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word many times a day.

Recently looked up

trypsin · regularity · scone · penned · bantering

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

silence · spell it rite · britney · bunda · settii