- the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.
- deficiency of necessary or desirable ingredients, qualities, etc.: poverty of the soil.
- scantiness; insufficiency: Their efforts to stamp out disease were hampered by a poverty of medical supplies.
- the condition of being without adequate food, money, etc
- scarcity or dearth
- a lack of elements conducive to fertility in land or soil
