indigent
Lacking all resources
Indigent means extremely poor, lacking basic necessities.
The word is formal and appears most often in legal or bureaucratic contexts: indigent defendants, services for the indigent.
As a noun, an indigent is a person in poverty: The shelter serves indigents and the homeless.
The term carries less stigma than alternatives like destitute or impoverished.
Completely without money
- brokeLacking any funds
- bankruptUnable to repay debts
- insolventUnable to pay debts
- impecuniousHabitually without money
penurious · moneyless · destitute · empty-handed · debt-ridden · beggarly · necessitous · pauperized
Minimal means of living
- hand-to-mouthConsuming resources immediately
- homelessWithout a dwelling
- shelterlessHaving no protection overhead
- hungryWanting to eat
starving · malnourished · struggling · precarious · vulnerable · desperate · marginalized · unemployed
Person in extreme poverty
- underclassLowest socioeconomic group
- peasantLow-status agricultural laborer
- commonerNon-noble person
- serfBonded agricultural laborer
untouchable · plebeian · proletariat · downtrodden · urchin · villein · beggar · vagrant
Severe lack of resources
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
- scarcityInsufficiency of something needed
- hardshipSuffering from difficult circumstances
- squalorDirty, degraded living conditions
want · privation · penury · destitution · lack · insufficiency · need · adversity
penniless
Completely without money
impecunious · penurious · moneyless · destitute · empty-handed · debt-ridden · beggarly · necessitous · pauperized · resourceless
subsistence
Minimal means of living
- hand-to-mouthConsuming resources immediately
- homelessWithout a dwelling
- shelterlessHaving no protection overhead
hungry · starving · malnourished · struggling · precarious · vulnerable · desperate · marginalized · unemployed · dispossessed
pauper
Person in extreme poverty
- underclassLowest socioeconomic group
- peasantLow-status agricultural laborer
- commonerNon-noble person
serf · untouchable · plebeian · proletariat · downtrodden · urchin · villein · beggar · vagrant · outcast
poverty
Severe lack of resources
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
- scarcityInsufficiency of something needed
- hardshipSuffering from difficult circumstances
squalor · want · privation · penury · destitution · lack · insufficiency · need · adversity · misfortune
welfare
Comfort and prosperity
handout · assistance · shelter · aid · beneficiary · recipient · stipend · dole
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, impoverished, generational poverty
- wealth statuspoor, rich, wealthy, affluent, middle-class
- welfarewelfare, welfare reform, welfare system, SNAP benefits, public assistance
- underclasspoor, pauper, peasant, homeless, serf
- financesmoney, affluence, cash, bankrupt, income
- peoplepeople, persons, person, individuals, humans
indigentwealthy
Having abundant financial resources
rich · affluent · prosperous · well-off · well-to-do