penury
noun C2
Plain meaning
extreme poverty
Exam-register meaning
severe poverty, deprivation, or scarcity, often in literary or historical writing
In context
naturalThe family lived in penury after the business collapsed.
examThe novel depicts penury not as personal failure but as the result of structural inequality.
Common collocations
live in penuryfall into penurygrinding penury
Watch out
Penury is literary/formal; for ordinary contexts, poverty is usually safer.
Word family
penurious (adjective)penuriously (adverb)