Meanings
plural poverty lines
- economicsThe threshold of poverty, below which one's income does not cover necessities.
1 more example
America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna level of personal income defining the state of poverty
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 貧困線 /贫困线
- 貧困線 /贫困线 (pínkùnxiàn)threshold of poverty
Czech práh chudoby
- práh chudobythreshold of poverty
Dutch armoedegrens
- armoedegrensthreshold of poverty
Esperanto linio de malriĉeco
- linio de malriĉecothreshold of poverty
Estonian vaesuspiir
- vaesuspiirthreshold of poverty
Finnish köyhyysraja
- köyhyysrajathreshold of poverty
French seuil de pauvreté
- seuil de pauvretéthreshold of poverty
German Armutsgrenze
- Armutsgrenzethreshold of poverty
Hungarian szegénységi küszöb
- szegénységi küszöbthreshold of poverty
Italian soglia di povertà
- soglia di povertàthreshold of poverty
Persian خط فقر
- خط فقر (xatt-e faqr)threshold of poverty
Polish granica ubóstwa
- granica ubóstwathreshold of poverty
Portuguese linha de pobreza
- linha de pobrezathreshold of poverty
Russian черта́ бе́дности
- черта́ бе́дности (čertá bédnosti)threshold of poverty
Slovak hranica chudoby
- hranica chudobythreshold of poverty
Spanish línea de pobreza, umbral de pobreza
- línea de pobrezathreshold of poverty
- umbral de pobrezathreshold of poverty
Swedish fattigdomsgräns
- fattigdomsgränsthreshold of poverty
Tamil வறுமைக்கோடு
- வறுமைக்கோடு (vaṟumaikkōṭu)threshold of poverty
Turkish yoksulluk sınırı
- yoksulluk sınırıthreshold of poverty
Ukrainian межа бідності
- межа бідності (meža bidnosti)threshold of poverty
Cite this entry
poverty line. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poverty%20line
“poverty line.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poverty%20line. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “poverty line,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poverty%20line.
Source: poverty line on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.