Word.ws English Dictionary

indigence

/ˈɪndɪd͡ʒəns/

indigence noun: extreme poverty or destitution.

Noun

indigence (countable and uncountable, plural indigences)

  1. Extreme poverty or destitution.
    • On Professor Solanka’s street, well-heeled white youths lounged in baggy garments on roseate stoops, stylishly simulating indigence while they waited for the billionairedom that would surely be along sometime soon.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 4
    Synonyms:
    indigency
    Antonyms:
    affluence

indigence meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

indigence in Tamil

கடும் வறுமை, தரித்திரம், உலைவு, நல்குரவு

indigence in Urdu

فقیری, غریبی, مفلوکیت, مفلسی, ناداری, نیاز مندی

indigence in Bengali

অত্যন্ত দারিদ্র্য

Synonyms of indigence

Antonyms

Forms of indigence

pluralindigences

Origin of indigence

From Middle English indigence, late 14th century, from Old French indigence (13th century), from Latin indigentia, from indigentem, form of indigēre (“to need”), from indu (“in, within”) + egēre (“be in need, want”). Only relation to antonym affluence is common Latinate suffix + -ence.

Questions about indigence

What does indigence mean?
Indigence means extreme poverty or destitution.
What is indigence in Tamil?
Indigence in Tamil is கடும் வறுமை, தரித்திரம், உலைவு. See Indigence meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is indigence?
Indigence is a noun.
How do you pronounce indigence?
Indigence is pronounced /ˈɪndɪd͡ʒəns/.
What is the plural of indigence?
The plural of indigence is indigences.

Words near indigence in the dictionary

  1. indigane
  2. indigen
  3. indigena
  4. indigenae
  5. indigenal
  6. indigence
  7. indigences
  8. indigencies
  9. indigency
  10. indigene
  11. indigeneities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: indigence (page history and authors); indigence (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); indigence (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); indigence (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “indigence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/indigence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.