Word.ws English Dictionary

rags to riches

rags to riches noun: from poverty to exceptional wealth.

Noun

rags to riches

  1. (attributive) From poverty to exceptional wealth.
    • […] and finally [Oprah Winfrey] declared herself not only “a believer in the American dream of rags to riches” but living proof of its veracity.2016 [2008], Janice Peck, Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era, Routledge, →ISBN, page IV
    Antonyms:
    riches to rags

rags to riches meaning in Arabic

rags to riches in Arabic

from poverty to exceptional wealth
مِنَ الْفَقْرِ إِلَى الثَّرَاءِ mina l-faqri ʔilā ṯ-ṯarāʔi, مِنَ الْفَقْرِ الْمُطْلَقِ إِلَى غِنَى الْفَاحِشِ mina l-faqri l-muṭlaqi ʔilā ḡinā l-fāḥiši, مِنَ الْعُسْرِ إِلَى الْيُسْرِ mina l-ʕusri ʔilā l-yusri

Antonyms of rags to riches

Forms of rags to riches

alternative formrags-to-riches

Origin of rags to riches

By surface analysis, a change from wearing ragged clothing (due to being impoverished) to obtaining a lot of money.

Questions about rags to riches

What does rags to riches mean?
Rags to riches means from poverty to exceptional wealth.
What is rags to riches in Arabic?
Rags to riches in Arabic is مِنَ الْفَقْرِ إِلَى الثَّرَاءِ (mina l-faqri ʔilā ṯ-ṯarāʔi), مِنَ الْفَقْرِ الْمُطْلَقِ إِلَى غِنَى الْفَاحِشِ (mina l-faqri l-muṭlaqi ʔilā ḡinā l-fāḥiši), مِنَ الْعُسْرِ إِلَى الْيُسْرِ (mina l-ʕusri ʔilā l-yusri). See Rags to riches meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is rags to riches?
Rags to riches is a noun.

Words near rags to riches in the dictionary

  1. rags and tatters
  2. rags off
  3. rags on
  4. rags out
  5. rags the puck
  6. rags to riches
  7. rags-to-riches
  8. Ragsdale
  9. Ragsdales
  10. ragseller
  11. ragsellers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rags to riches (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: En-au-rags to riches.ogg.

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