SYNONYMS

A joke by Jules Feiffer

I used to think I was poor. Then they told

me I wasn’t poor, I was needy.Then they
told me it was self-defeating to think of
myself as needy. I was deprived. (Oh, not
deprived but rather underprivileged.)
Then they told me that underprivileged
was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still
don’t have a dime. But I have a great
vocabulary.
Synonyms in the passage:

• POOR
• NEEDY
• DEPRIVED
• UNDERPRIVILEGED
• DISADVANTAGED

Definitions from Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:

• POOR having little money and/or few possessions - The poor plural noun - opposite is rich
• NEEDY poor and not having enough food, clothes, etc - the needy ! plural noun
• DEPRIVED not having the things that are necessary for a pleasant life, such as enough
money, food or good living conditions
• UNDERPRIVILEGED lacking the money, possessions, education, opportunities, etc. that the
average person has – the underprivileged plural noun
• DISADVANTAGED lacking the standard of living conditions, education, etc. that most people
have - the disadvantaged plural noun

Translation:

• POOR povero
• NEEDY bisognoso
• DEPRIVED deprivato, disagiato
• UNDERPRIVILEGED svantaggiato (socialmente), non-privilegiato
• DISADVANTAGED diseredato
Two types of synonims dictionaries: 1) Listing 2) Explanatory

This is a listing dictionary; it provides the mere list of synonyms.

poor
adj lit: badly off, destitute, hard up, impoverished, needy, penurious, poverty-stricken; deficient,
inadequate, insufficient, meagre, niggardly, reduced, scanty, skimpy, sparse, straitened; faulty,
inferior, mediocre, rotten, rubbishy, shabby, shoddy, sorry, worthless; bad, bare, barren,
depleted, infertile, exhausted, unproductive; hapless, ill-fated, miserable, pathetic, unfortunate,
wretched; humble, insignificant, mean, modest, paltry, trivial.

some examples (from Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Ddictionary, sub vocibus):

• penurious (fr penury, estreme poverty - the state of being extremely poor) “gretto;
bisognoso” (formal, not frequently used)
• A diet deficient in vitamin D may cause the disease rickets [“rachitismo”] (=lacking)
• a niggardly donation/amount (disapproving - = slight in amount, quality or effort;
having a connotation of ‘tirchieria’).
• a skimpy meal (disapproving - not large enough)
• a sparse population/audience/ vegetation/woodland/beard (small in numbers or
amount)
• in very straitened circumstances (having much less money available than there
was in the past)
• disapproving
• shoddy goods (badly and carelessly made, using low quality materials)
• NB: sorry as an adjective: “a sorry sight/state” = a bad condition or situation
• physically/emotionally depleted (= weakened)
• Many children are hapless victims of this war.
• miserable weather (unpleasant and causing unhappiness)
• a wretched childhood (unhappy, unpleasant or of low quality)
• Stop being so mean to me! (unkind or unpleasant)
• Student grants these days are paltry (of a sum of money: very small and of little or
no value)
This is an example of explanatory dictionary of synonyms: it provides an explanation of differences in
meaning between synonyms:

From the Cassell’s Modern Guide to Synonyms & Related Words, Edited by S.I. Hayakawa, Revised by P.J. Fletcher,
London: Cassell, 1971.

POOR hard up lower-class underprivileged unemployable

These words describe people who are unable to obtain sufficient money or possessions to ensure them a
decent standard of living. Poor is the most general term and is applied to those who live in more or less
constant poverty,
or to anything characterized by or resulting from poverty: poor pensioners; a poor neighbourhood,
Underprivileged is vaguely and categorically applied to those who, for various reasons, such as some
sort of economic oppression, and lack of education or the ability to benefit from it, are deprived of many of
the basic necessities (such as adequate food, clothing, shelter, and recreational facilities) that most people
take for granted as rights. It is often applied specifically to the children of poor parents.
Hard up is a colloquial term for poor. But to be hard up often implies only a temporary shortage of
money rather than a state of permanent need. People who are hard up are not poor in the accepted sense of
the word: so hard up before pay-day that he had to borrow money for lunch; farmers hard up because of a
crop failure.
Lower-class is used to describe that group of people occupying the lowest social and economic level
in any society that has either a long-established caste system or one of class distinctions based on occupation,
education, and income. People who are lower-class tend to constitute lower-income groups also, but are not
necessarily poor. The term is frequently used in an unfavourable and snobbish way to try to suggest lack of
ambition, crude manners, and low educational attainments.
Unemployable refers to people who for various reasons are unable to work at any job or remunerative
occupation. It is now used widely of young people, especially poor ones, who have been so handicapped in
the learning process that they cannot be trained for useful employment. In a wider sense, people who are
unemployable may be those of advanced age or those who have physical and mental disabilities which
prevent them from working. See
INSOLVENT, REQUIRE.
antonyms: privileged, upper-class, WEALTHY, well-to-do.
From the Cassell’s Modern Guide to Synonyms & Related Words, Edited by S.I. Hayakawa, Revised by P.J. Fletcher,
London: Cassell, 1971.

PENNILESS destitute indigent necessitous needy poverty-stricken

These words are used to describe people who are poor, who do not have enough money to maintain a decent
standard of living, or who have lost their means of subsistence. Penniless usually refers to someone who has
undergone a sudden, calamitous loss of money and property, but who, as a result, may not actually be in real
want. [At the time of the stock market crash in 1929 many wealthy men found themselves penniless; His
father cut John out of his will and left him penniless.] Penniless may also be applied to those who make no
attempt to be financially stable, or who are unequipped to do so: penniless tramps; a penniless artist who
devoted all his energies to his painting.
Poverty-stricken is the most comprehensive term in this group. It is generally used to describe people
who lack the material possessions to make life even passably comfortable, either through economic stress or
because, as in the case of members of some religious orders, they have chosen a way of life in which they
must forgo many necessities and all luxuries. Poverty-stricken points to a condition that is more or less
hopeless and permanent, or at least tends to go on for a long period: poverty-stricken refugees who cannot
get work to supply themselves with necessities. The word is used also to describe conditions and situations
which exhibit or even cause poverty: a poverty-stricken country with little industry.
Destitute emphasizes poverty of such severity that one is deprived of such basic necessities as food,
clothing, and shelter : a destitute slum family evicted for not paying rent; destitute, lost children wandering
about in a bombed city.
Indigent indicates a state of less dire want than do poverty-stricken or destitute, and it is sometimes
used in opposition to affluent. Indigent is applied to those suffering from a kind of 'genteel' poverty in which
circumstances are straitened but something of the former outward facade is preserved: The indigent old
couple, who find it hard to make ends meet on a pension, keep their home neat and tidy.
A needy person is one who is certainly poverty-stricken, or even destitute, but the word implies an
inability to maintain oneself without some help from public or private assistance: Christmas dinners at a
mission for the homeless and needy; needy children who receive school meals free.
Necessitous is a close synonym of poverty-stricken and needy, but it now tends to sound literary and is
infrequently used today. See INSOLVENT, POOR.
antonyms: affluent, moneyed, opulent, rich, wealthy, well-heeled.