indigence

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The Word of the Day for March 5 is:

indigence   \IN-dih-junss\   noun 
     : a level of poverty in which real hardship and 
deprivation are suffered and comforts of life are wholly lacking

Example sentence:
     "It is a fine thing, reader, to be lifted in a moment from 
indigence to wealth." (Charlotte Bronte, _Jane Eyre_)

Did you know?
     Is your vocabulary impoverished by a lack of synonyms 
for "poverty"? We can help. "Poverty," "penury," 
want," "destitution," and "indigence" all describe the state of 
someone who is lacking in key resources. "Poverty" covers the 
range from severe lack of basic necessities to an absence of material comforts 
("the refugees lived in extreme 
poverty"). "Penury" suggests a cramping or oppressive lack of 
money ("illness condemned him to years of penury"). "Want" 
and "destitution" imply extreme, even life-threatening, poverty 
("they lived in a perpetual state of want") ("the widespread 
destitution in countries beset by famine"). "Indigence," which 
descends from a Latin verb meaning "to need," implies seriously 
straitened circumstances and usually connotes the endurance of 
many hardships and the lack of comforts ("she struggled through 
the indigence of her college years").