indigence
Americannoun
Usage
What are other ways to say indigence? Indigence refers to a seriously impoverished condition. How is it different from the synonyms poverty and destitution? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Etymology
Origin of indigence
1325–75; Middle English < Latin indigentia need. See indigent, -ence
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.
They had fled violence, indigence and threats to their lives, and undertaken perilous journeys through the desert.
From Washington Post
A child who knows that indigence will be compensated for at a parent’s death has less incentive to avoid that state.
From New York Times
What has gone wrong in Mexico, Cuba, Central America, Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia, Arana sadly concludes, is “what always went wrong: the dictators, the rapine, the seemingly insurmountable indigence, corruption, inefficiency. It’s just our nature.”
From Washington Post
She even forbade me to write about anything in my college essay that hinted at our immigrant indigence.
From The New Yorker
But once the month is over, broke Diana faces indigence back in England unless she’s rescued from destitution by true love.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
