indigent
Americanadjective
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lacking food, clothing, and other necessities of life because of poverty; needy; poor; impoverished.
- Synonyms:
- distressed, penurious, necessitous
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Archaic.
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deficient in what is requisite.
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destitute (usually followed byof ).
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noun
adjective
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so poor as to lack even necessities; very needy
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archaic (usually foll by of) lacking (in) or destitute (of)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of indigent
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin indigent-, stem of indigēns “needing, lacking,” present participle of indigēre “to need, lack, be poor,” from ind-, variant of in- in- 2 ( cf. indagate) + -igēre, combining form of egēre “to need, lack”
Explanation
An indigent person is extremely poor, lacking the basic resources of a normal life. Often the indigent lack not only money but homes. Indigent comes from a Latin word meaning wanting, which we used to use to mean “lacking” and not just to describe desires. Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, free medical clinics and court-appointed lawyers are all institutions that our society has developed to help indigent people.
Vocabulary lists containing indigent
Just Mercy
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "I"
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This Week in Words: April 14 - 20, 2018
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Indigent defendants, who do not have the financial resources to pay their own legal fees, can rely on public defenders paid for by the government.
From Salon • Oct. 11, 2025
But Indigent Defense is woefully underfunded and, sometimes, State-appointed lawyers are nowhere near as competent as Federal attorneys.
From Slate • Jun. 6, 2022
According to a Local Indigent Care Needs assessment, Snohomish County has more than 20,000 teens, between the ages of 12-19, who are living below the poverty line on less than $25,000 a year.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 22, 2022
J. Daran Burns, a Georgia lawyer, was appointed to represent Long by the Cherokee County Indigent Defense office, his firm said Thursday.
From Washington Post • Mar. 18, 2021
Indigent "whites," also, were provided for; Mr. Rhodes made himself responsible for the formation of an auxiliary Fire Brigade for the behoof of refugees more accustomed to a pen than a pick.
From The Siege of Kimberley by Phelan, T.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
