Impoverished means extremely poor, lacking the money and resources needed for basic necessities like food, shelter, and clothing. An impoverished family might struggle to pay rent or buy groceries. An impoverished neighborhood might have rundown buildings, few job opportunities, and limited access to good schools or healthcare.

It describes a serious level of poverty. Someone might be broke or short on cash temporarily, but impoverished suggests a deeper, more lasting condition where people lack not just money but opportunities and resources.

You can also use impoverished more broadly to describe anything severely lacking in quality or richness. An impoverished vocabulary means someone uses very few words to express themselves. Impoverished soil can't grow healthy crops because it lacks nutrients. In these cases, the word means depleted or stripped of something valuable, just as poverty can strip away financial resources.

The opposite of impoverished is affluent or prosperous, words that describe having abundant resources and opportunities.