SYNONYMS
A DEFINITION OF ‘SYNONYM’ /ˈsɪnənɪm/:
A word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word in the same language.
Find out four synonyms of poor in this joke by Jules Feiffer, that you already know:
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
Here is how the synonyms of ‘poor’ are explained in the
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
s.v. poor, “synonyms”
poor - disadvantaged - needy - impoverished deprived - penniless - hard up - underprivileged
These words all describe sb who has very little or no money and therefore cannot satisfy their basic
needs.
• poor having very little money; not having enough money for basic needs: They were too poor
to buy shoes for the kids
• disadvantaged /ˌdɪsədˈvɑːntɪdʒd/ not having the things, such as education, or enough
money, that people need in order to succeed in life: socially disadvantaged sections of the
community.
• needy poor: It's a charity that provides help for needy children.
• impoverished /ɪmˈpɒvərɪʃt/ [journalism] poor: Thousands of impoverished peasants are
desperate to move to the cities [= desperately wanto to …].
• deprived /dɪˈpraɪvd/ [usually before noun] without enough food, education, and all the things
that are necessary for people to live a happy and comfortable life: a deprived childhood /
background / area - economically / emotionally / socially deprived
• penniless (literary) having no money; very poor: He died penniless in Paris.
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•
•
hard up (informal) having very little money, especially for a short period of time: I was always
hard up as a student.
underprivileged having less money and fewer opportunities than most people in society:
underprivileged sections of the community. Syn. Disadvantaged
POOR, NEEDY, IMPOVERISHED OR DEPRIVED?
Poor is the most general of these words and can be used to describe yourself, another individual
person, people as a group, or a country or an area.
Needy is mostly used to describe people considered as a group: it is not used to talk about yourself
or individual people: poor/needy children/families - They were too needy to buy shoes for the kids.
Impoverished is used, especially in journalism, to talk about poor countries and the people who
live there.
To talk about poor areas in rich countries, use deprived.
The following is a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms in Italian. Look at the entry below,
and find out whether we have all the Italian synonyms for ‘povero’ listed above.
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Translation of the terms in the passage by Feiffer:
•
•
•
•
•
POOR
NEEDY
DEPRIVED
UNDERPRIVILEGED
DISADVANTAGED
povero
bisognoso
deprivato ?
diseredato ?
svantaggiato socialmente
DEPRIVATO and SVANTAGGIATO are not included in Gabrielli’s dictionary.
Can deprived be “deprivato,” and underprivileged “diseredato”?
A way to find equivalents, when translating from one language into another, is comparing
definitions.
DEPRIVED: without enough food, education, and all the things that are necessary for people to live
a happy and comfortable life. (Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary)
DEPRIVATO: escluso dal godimento di beni di realtà sociali e culturali di più alto livello.
(Vocabolario della lingua italiana di Nicola Zingarelli, Zanichelli)
UNDERPRIVILEGED: having less money and fewer opportunities than most people in society;
disadvantaged. (Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary)
DISEREDATO: privo di beni e impossibilitato a usufruire di quei diritti che dovrebbero essere
comuni a tutti. (Tullio De Mauro, Grande Dizionario Italiano dell’uso, UTET)
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ROGET’S THESAURUS
/ˈrɔʒeiz θɪˈsɔːrəs/
A popular reference book for synonyms in English is Roget’s Thesaurus. A ‘thesaurus’ /θɪˈsɔːrəs/ is
a dictionary of synonyms. Roget’s Thesaurus was originally written by Peter Mark Roget /ˈrɔʒei/
(1779–1869) and first published in 1852. Roget was a scientist and inventor who started work on
the thesaurus when he retired as Secretary of the Royal Society in 1848 . It contains English words
or phrases arranged together in groups according to their meaning, and is still used today by people
looking for the most appropriate word or phrase to use in a piece of writing. New editions of Roget
are published regularly.
Here are the cover of a modern edition of the Roget, and the synonyms it provides for the adjective
poor:
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DICTIONARIES OF SYNONYMS
There are two types of dictionaries of synonyms:
1) A listing dictionary.
2) An explanatory dictionary.
This is a listing dictionary; it provides the mere list of synonyms, grouped under a general entry.
A listing dictionary is very useful when, especially in writing, you are looking for a more exact
term, or for a different one, if you do not want to repeat the same word too many times.
In the example below, from the Word for Word dictionary, the general entry is the adjective poor,
and a number of other adjectives are then provided as synonyms for it.
Poor
badly off, destitute, hard up, impoverished, needy,
penurious, poverty-stricken; deficient, inadequate,
insufficient, eager, 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.
Do you have all the Feiffer synonyms in the entry?
(Just needy. The others – deprived, underprivileged, disadvantaged – are missing.)
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An explanatory dictionary provides an explanation of differences in meaning between the various
synonyms. Here is one:
(Cassell’s Modern Guide to Synonyms & Related Words. Edited by S.I. Hayakawa. Revised by P.J.
Fletcher. London: Cassell, 1971.)
And here is a sample entry, s.v. poor:
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.
antonyms: privileged, upper-class, WEALTHY, well-to-do.
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Another example from the same dictionary, s.v. penniless:
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.
antonyms: affluent, moneyed, opulent, rich, wealthy, well-heeled.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SYNONYMS
Synonyms do not have exactly the same meaning. There are always differences between them, both
in usage and in meaning.
E.g.: strong / heavy, small / little are synonyms.
Heavy/Strong:
As you already know, we say a strong wind, not a heavy wind, and heavy rain, not strong rain.
This is a difference in usage. (Specifically, a difference in collocation.)
Small/Little:
small refers to size and is the usual opposite of 'big' or 'large:'
Could I have a hamburger and a small Coke please?
Our house is quite small.
Little may refer to size, or it may refer to the speaker's feelings. It can suggest that the speaker likes
or dislikes something.
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They live in a beautiful little village.
Rats are horrible little animals.
These are differences in meaning. (Semantic difference.)
The Cassell’s dictionary entries show other types of differences between synonyms, besides the
basic differences in meaning that are illustrated in each entry. For example:
•
•
•
•
•
Difference in the intensity of meaning: “Indigent indicates a state of less dire want than do povertystricken or destitute;” “Destitute emphasizes poverty.”
Difference in the register of the word: “Necessitous tends to sound literary.” “Hard up is a
colloquial term.”
Difference in the frequency of use: “Necessitous is infrequently used today.”
Difference in circumstances: “Hard up implies only a temporary shortage of money.”
“Underprivileged is often applied specifically to the children of poor parents.”
Comprehensiveness of meaning: “Poor is the most general term.” “Poverty-stricken is the most
comprehensive term in this group.”
N.B.: The opposite of synonym: antonym (cf. “Sinonimi e contrari.”)
AN ON-LINE DICTIONARY OF SYNONYMS
The English Synonym Dictionary on this link http://dico.isc.cnrs.fr/dico/en/search gives 82 words as
synonyms for ‘poor.’
POOR
ailing, arid, bad, badly, badly-off, bankrupt, bare, barren, base,
beggarly, below par, broke, cheap, deficient, deprived, destitute,
distressed, exiguous, faulty, flimsy, fruitless, hapless, hard up,
hardscrabble, humble, impecunious, impoverished, inadequate,
indigent, inferior, infertile, insubstantial, insufficient, lacking, lame,
lousily, lousy, low, low-grade, lowly, luckless, meager, meagre, mean,
mediocre, menial, miserable, misfortunate, needy, paltry, pathetic,
penniless, penurious, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poorly, povertystricken, rotten, rottenly, scanty, second-rate, shabby, shoddy, short,
sick, sickly, slender, slim, sparse, star-crossed, sterile, substandard,
underprivileged, unfortunate, unlucky, unproductive, weak, worthless,
wretched
This on-line dictionary of synonyms is a listing type of dictionary. Does it give all the
alternatives of “poor” that you found in the passage by Feiffer?
One is missing: disadvantaged.
But if you click on underprivileged in the list above, the following closer synonyms appear:
“deprived, destitute, disadvantaged, impoverished, needy, poor,” and, as you see, disadvantaged is
among them.
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