Skip to main content
PlainSpell

poor

/pʊɚ/adjective, noun, verb

poor is spelled P-O-O-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 123 times per million words in written English, the 851st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “poor vs pour” about 320 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, poor means “With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in poor?

Letters4: P-O-O-R
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing123 times per million words; the 851st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is poor?

Poor appears 123 times per million words in written English, the 851st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce poor?

  • /pʊɚ/
  • /pʊɹ/
  • /pɔɹ/

Poor has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-poor.ogg, En-uk-poor.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with poor

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

poor vs pour320 G
poor vs pore30 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with poor?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as poor.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: roop.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of poor

  • poorer comparative
  • poorest superlative
  • poors plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • pooring participle, present
  • poored participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does poor mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    With no or few possessions or money, particularly in relation to contemporaries who do have them.

    We were so poor that we couldn't afford shoes.

  2. 2

    Of low quality.

    That was a poor performance.

  3. 3

    Worthy of pity.

    Oh, you poor thing, you're drenched!

  4. 4

    Deficient in a specified way.

    Cow's milk is poor in iron.

  5. 5

    Inadequate, insufficient.

    I received a poor reward for all my hard work.

  6. 6

    Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

noun

  1. 1

    The poor people of a society or the world collectively, the poor class of a society.

    Then there have not always been proletarians? No. There have always been poor and working classes; and those who worked were almost always the poor. But there have not always been proletarians, just as competition has not always been free.

  2. 2

    the second-to-last placer in Tycoon

  3. 3

    A poor person.

    The poors are at it again.

  4. 4

    obsoleteSynonym of poor cod.

verb

  1. 1

    rareSynonym of impoverish, to make poor.

    It is very evident that Americans are being ‘poored down’ to suit the world socialist agenda, and to maximize profits for the international corporations.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo become poor.

    The mone of this realme is born out in gret quantite and the realme puryt of the sammyn.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo call someone poor.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Poor in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpauvre (with few or no possessions or money), piètre (of low quality), pitoyable (used to express pity), pauvres (the poor people of a society or the world…)
Germanarm (with few or no possessions or money), armselig (of low quality), Arme (the poor people of a society or the world…), Armer (poor person)
Portuguesepobre, necessitado, humilde, empobrecido (with few or no possessions or money), fraco, ruim (of low quality)
Spanishmishio, misio (with few or no possessions or money), pobre, cutre (of low quality), pobres (the poor people of a society or the world…), poco (deficient in a specified way)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does poor come from?

Inherited from Middle English povre, povere, from Old French and Anglo-Norman povre, poure, from Latin pauper, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”). Doublet of pauper.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after poor