Standard Lemma guide

penniless

adj · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈpɛ.nɪ.ləs/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P EH1 N IY0 L AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Lacking even the smallest amount of money.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively, not-comparable

Examples

  • In societies without national insurance of any kind, almshouses are the last refuge of penniless people.
  • In a functioning digital economy, being cashless is far different from being penniless, because cash is merely one form of money; but some preppers hoard gold in case the system gets destroyed and cashlessness suddenly becomes pennilessness.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: farthingless, moneyless, destitute, nillionaire, almsless, arm, badly off, bankrupt, beggared, beggarly, boracic, broke, broken, broker than the Ten Commandments, depauperate, dirt poor, disadvantaged, down and out, down at heel, down on one's luck, down on one's uppers, empty-handed, feeling the pinch, flat, goodless, groatless, hard up, impecunious, impoverished, in need, indigent, insolvent, lower-class, necessitous, needy, oofless, pauperized, penniless, penurious, pinched, pok kai, poor, poor as a church mouse, poor as a rat, poor as Job, possessionless, poverty-ridden, poverty-stricken, shillingless, skint, stone-broke, stony-broke, strapped, stuck, threadbare, unwealthy, wealthless

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of a country's system of money, abstaining from the use of penny coins, despite having fully decimalized currency, by means of rounding of cash transactions (but not necessarily of cashless ones).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: banking, business, hobbies, lifestyle, numismatics

Examples

  • Canada became a penniless country in 2013 simply by rounding its cash transactions to the nearest nickel but otherwise not changing anything.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

not having enough money to pay for necessities

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: hard up, impecunious, in straitened circumstances(p), penurious, pinched

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English penyles, penylees; equivalent to penny + -less. Compare Old Norse penningalauss (“penniless”).

Across languages

Translations

43 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: pennieloos — utterly without money
  • Arabic: فقير — utterly without money
  • Bengali: নিকড়িয়া (nikoṛiẏa) — utterly without money
  • Bengali: কপর্দকশূন্য (kopordokśunno) — utterly without money
  • Breton: didra — utterly without money
  • Bulgarian: безпаричен (bezparičen) — utterly without money
  • Chinese Mandarin: 一貧如洗 /一贫如洗 (yīpínrúxǐ) — utterly without money
  • Chinese Mandarin: 身無分文 /身无分文 (shēnwúfēnwén) — utterly without money
  • Chinese Mandarin: 囊空如洗 (nángkōngrúxǐ) — utterly without money
  • Chinese Mandarin: 不名一文 (bùmíngyīwén) — utterly without money
  • Chinese Mandarin: 一文不名 (yīwénbùmíng) — utterly without money
  • Esperanto: senmona — utterly without money
  • Finnish: pennitön — utterly without money
  • French: sans le sou — utterly without money
  • German: mittellos — utterly without money
  • German: ohne Geld — utterly without money
  • German: ohne einen Pfennig — utterly without money
  • Greek: απένταρος (apéntaros) — utterly without money
  • Hindi: निकौड़िया (nikauṛiyā) — utterly without money
  • Hungarian: nincstelen — utterly without money
  • Indonesian: melarat — utterly without money
  • Indonesian: fakir — utterly without money
  • Italian: spiantato — utterly without money
  • Italian: squattrinato — utterly without money
  • Italian: scannato — utterly without money
  • Japanese: 一文無し (ichimonnashi) — utterly without money
  • Japanese: 無一文 (muichimon) — utterly without money
  • Japanese: 文無し (monnashi) — utterly without money
  • Korean: 무일푼인 (mu'ilpun-in) — utterly without money
  • Macedonian: нема скршен денар (nema skršen denar) — utterly without money
  • Malay: fakir — utterly without money
  • Norwegian: pengelens — utterly without money
  • Polish: bez grosza przy duszy — utterly without money
  • Portuguese: paupérrimo — utterly without money
  • Russian: безде́нежный (bezdénežnyj) — utterly without money
  • Russian: без гроша́ (bez grošá) — utterly without money
  • Russian: без копе́йки (bez kopéjki) — utterly without money
  • Russian: на мели́ (na melí) — utterly without money
  • Spanish: miserable — utterly without money
  • Ukrainian: безгрошови́й (bezhrošovýj) — utterly without money
  • Ukrainian: без гро́шей (bez hróšej) — utterly without money
  • Volapük: nenpänidik — utterly without money
  • Volapük: nenmonik — utterly without money
Real reading context

penniless in complete knowledge articles