Indigence

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

indigence
    n 1: a state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence
         appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the
         homeless" [syn: {indigence}, {need}, {penury}, {pauperism},
         {pauperization}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Indigence \In"di*gence\, n. [L. indigentia: cf. F. indigence.
   See {Indigent}.]
   The condition of being indigent; lack of estate, or means of
   comfortable subsistence; penury; poverty; as, helpless
   indigence. --Cowper.

   Syn: Poverty; penury; destitution; want; need; privation;
        lack. See {Poverty}.
        [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

26 Moby Thesaurus words for "indigence":
      bare cupboard, bare subsistence, beggarliness, beggary,
      deprivation, destitution, empty purse, grinding poverty, gripe,
      hand-to-mouth existence, homelessness, impecuniousness,
      impoverishment, lack, mendicancy, moneylessness, necessitousness,
      necessity, need, neediness, pauperism, pauperization, penury,
      pinch, privation, want

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