WordWeb Online

1. The state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions
   - poverty, impoverishment
    
2. Less than adequate
   "the relative poorness of New England farmland"
    
3. The quality of being meagre
   - meagerness [N. Amer], meagreness [Brit, Cdn], leanness, scantiness, scantness, exiguity
    
4. The quality of being poorly made or maintained
   "she was unrecognizable because of the poorness of the photography"

Derived forms: poornesses

See also: poor

Type of: aridity, barrenness, deficiency, financial condition, fruitlessness, inadequacy, inferiority, insufficiency, low quality

Encyclopedia: Poorness