penury

noun

pen·​u·​ry ˈpen-yə-rē 

1

: a cramping and oppressive lack of resources (such as money)

especially : severe poverty

2

: extreme and often stingy frugality

Did you know?

The exact meaning of "penury" (from Latin penuria, meaning "want") can vary a bit from context to context. It sometimes has had a broad sense of "lack" or "scarcity," as when one character remarks on another's "penury of conversation" in Jane Austen's Emma. It can also mean "frugality," as in Edith Wharton's description of an excessively thrifty hostess in The Age of Innocence: "Her relatives considered that the penury of her table discredited the Mingott name, which had always been associated with good living." The most common sense of "penury," however, is simply "poverty," as in Shakespeare's As You Like It: "Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury?"

Synonyms

• beggary
• destituteness
• destitution
• impecuniosity
• impecuniousness
• impoverishment
• indigence
• necessity
• need
• neediness
• pauperism
• penuriousness
• poorness
• poverty
• want

Choose the Right Synonym for penury

poverty, indigence, penury, want, destitution mean the state of one with insufficient resources.

poverty may cover a range from extreme want of necessities to an absence of material comforts.

the extreme poverty of the slum dwellers

indigence implies seriously straitened circumstances.

the indigence of her years as a graduate student

penury suggests a cramping or oppressive lack of money.

a catastrophic illness that condemned them to years of penury

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

Examples of penury in a Sentence

lived in a time when single women like herself faced a lifetime of genteel penury

Recent Examples on the Web

All of this penury is something of a departure for President Trump, who presided over small but steady budget increases for NASA—from just over $18 billion to just over $21 billion—during his first term. —Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 6 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

In doing so, China followed in the footsteps of other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea that had gone through penury to wealth in the postwar period through economic development and trade. —Bryan Walsh, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018

That would help ensure that our longer lives are not feared as a time of pain, penury or purposelessness, but as a treasured gift of years. —Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Latin penuria, paenuria want; perhaps akin to Latin paene almost

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

penury

noun

pen·​u·​ry ˈpen-yə-rē 

: extreme poverty