penury
Syllables: pen·u·ry/ˈpɛnjʊɹi//ˈpɛnjəɹi/
penury noun: extreme need or want; destitution, poverty; (countable) an instance of this.
Noun
penury (usually uncountable, plural penuries)
- Extreme need or want; destitution, poverty; (countable) an instance of this.
- As he [Jesus] behelde⸝ he ſawe the ryche men⸝ howe they caſt in their offeringꝭ [offeringis] into the treſury. He ſawe alſo a certayne povre widdowe⸝ which caſt ĩ [in] thydre two mytes. And he ſaid: of a trueth I ſaye vnto you⸝ this povre widdowe hath putt in moare thẽ [then, i.e., than] they all....1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xxj:[1–4], folio cxj, recto
- [W]hat prodigall portion haue I ſpent, that I ſhould come to ſuch penury?c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Often followed by of: a lack of something; a dearth, a scarcity.
- VVith theſe and many others as conſiderable, vvhich partly vvillingly, and partly in the penury of Books, forgettingly I paſſe, […]1650, J[ohn] H[all], “The Grounds of Monarchy. The First Part.”, in The Grounds & Reasons of Monarchy Considered. […], [S.l.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 52
- In early youth I laboured under a peculiar embarrassment and penury of words, which I sought to convey my thoughts adequately upon interesting subjects: […]1839 January, February, April, Thomas De Quincey, “William Wordsworth”, in Autobiographic Sketches: With Recollections of the Lakes (De Quincey’s Works; II), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, pages...
- Synonyms:
- barrenness, insufficiency
- The quality of being miserly; miserliness, parsimoniousness, stinginess.
- God ſometimes puniſhes one ſinne vvith another; pride vvith adultery, drunkenneſſe vvith murder, careleſeneſſe vvith irreligion, idleneſſe vvith vanity, penury vvith oppreſſion, irreligion vvith blaſphemy, and that vvith Atheiſme, and therefore it is no vvonder if he puniſhes a ſinner by a ſinner.1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “[XXVIII Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Summer Half-year, […].] Sermon X. The Faith and Patience of the Saints: Or The Righteous Cause Oppressed. Part II.”, in...
- Let them not ſtill be obſtinately blind, / Still to divert the Good thou haſt deſign'd, / Or vvith Malignant penury, / To ſterve the Royal Vertues of his Mind.1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis: A Funeral-Pindarique Poem Sacred to the Happy Memory of King Charles II, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, stanza XVIII, page 24
penury meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
penury in Tamil
- ஏழை நிலை, ஏழ்மை நிலை, வறுமை, பஞ்சப் பராரி நிலை
penury in Urdu
- غریبی, غربت, کمی, قلت
penury in Bengali
- চরম দারিদ্র্য, অভাব
penury in Malayalam
- ദാരിദ്ര്യം, ഗതികേട്, ഇല്ലായ്മ
More languagesFewer languages
- penury in Kannada
- ದಟ್ಟದಾರಿದ್ರ್ಯ, ಕಡು ಬಡತನ, ನಿರ್ಗತಿಕತನ, ಬಿಕಾರಿಯ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ
Examples of penury in a sentence
- For they all have of their ſuperfluyte added vnto the offeringe off God: But ſhe⸝ of her penury⸝ hath caſt in all the ſubſtaunce that ſhe hadde.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke...
- In all labour there is profit: but the talke of the lippes tendeth onely to penury.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 14:23, signature [Iii4], verso, column 2:
- Chill Penury repreſs'd their noble rage, / And froze the genial current of the ſoul.1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751), T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley...
- Ten months earlier the amount it stood for had represented the depths of penury; but her standard of values had changed in the interval, and now visions of wealth lurked in every flourish of the pen.1905, Edith Wharton, chapter XIII, in The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 514:
Synonyms of penury
Forms of penury
| plural | penuries |
|---|
Origin of penury
From Late Middle English penuri, penurie (“destitution, need, poverty; dearth, lack, scarcity”), borrowed from Latin pēnūria (“need, scarcity, want”) + Middle English -i, -ie (suffix forming abstract and collective nouns); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to paene (“almost, nearly; barely, hardly, scarcely”, adverb), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”).
Words formed from penury
- penured
- penurous
Questions about penury
- What does penury mean?
- Penury means extreme need or want; destitution, poverty; (countable) an instance of this.
- What is penury in Tamil?
- Penury in Tamil is ஏழை நிலை, ஏழ்மை நிலை, வறுமை. See Penury meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use penury in a sentence?
- For they all have of their ſuperfluyte added vnto the offeringe off God: But ſhe⸝ of her penury⸝ hath caſt in all the ſubſtaunce that ſhe hadde.
- What part of speech is penury?
- Penury is a noun.
- How do you pronounce penury?
- Penury is pronounced /ˈpɛnjʊɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of penury?
- The plural of penury is penuries.
Words near penury in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: penury (page history and authors); penury (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); penury (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); penury (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); penury (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); penury (Kannada 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-penury.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-penury.wav.
Cite this entry: “penury.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/penury. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.