insolvency

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

insolvency
    n 1: the lack of financial resources [ant: {solvency}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Insolvency \In*sol"ven*cy\, n.; pl. {Insolvencies}. (Law)
      (a) The condition of being insolvent; the state or
          condition of a person who is insolvent; the condition
          of one who is unable to pay his debts as they fall
          due, or in the usual course of trade and business; as,
          a merchant's insolvency.
      (b) Insufficiency to discharge all debts of the owner; as,
          the insolvency of an estate.
          [1913 Webster]

   {Act of insolvency}. See {Insolvent law} under {Insolvent},
      a.
      [1913 Webster]

from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)

INSOLVENCY. The state or condition of a person who is insolvent. (q. v.) . 
     2. Insolvency may be simple or notorious. Simple insolvency is the 
debtor's inability to pay his debts; and is attended by no legal badge of 
notoriety, or promulgation. Notorious insolvency is that which is designated 
by some public act, by which it becomes notorious and irretrievable, as 
applying for the benefit of the insolvent laws, and being discharged under 
the same. 
     3. Insolvency is a term of more extensive signification than 
bankruptcy, and includes all kinds of inability to pay a just debt. 2 Bell's 
Commentaries, 162, 6th ed.

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

31 Moby Thesaurus words for "insolvency":
      bankruptcy, bouncing check, broken fortune, bust, collapse, crash,
      difficulties, distress, embarrassment, failure, genteel poverty,
      hard pinch, hardship, impecuniosity, impecuniousness,
      insufficient funds, kited check, light purse, narrow means,
      overdraft, overdrawn account, poorness, poverty, receivership,
      slender means, straitened circumstances, straits, tight squeeze,
      unprosperousness, voluntary poverty, vows of poverty