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The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts.
(noun)
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Deficiency in amount; scantiness: "the poverty of feeling that reduced her soul” ( Scott Turow).
(noun)
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Unproductiveness; infertility: the poverty of the soil.
(noun)
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Renunciation made by a member of a religious order of the right to own property.
(noun)
American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.