Pauperism

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

pauperism
    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

Pauperism \Pau"per*ism\, n. [Cf. F. paup['e]risme.]
   The state of being a pauper; the state of indigent persons
   requiring support from the community. --Whatly.
   [1913 Webster]

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

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

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

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