poor as a church mouse
"poor-as-a-church-mouse" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“poor as a church mouse” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very poor, to the point of starving or begging; utterly destitute.
Corpus desk
Index EN-poor-as-a-church-mouse · poor as a church mouse · English
poor as a church mouse · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 22 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | poor as a church mouse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “poor as a church mouse” in English
Rare enough to double-check
poor as a church mouse is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Very poor, to the point of starving or begging; utterly destitute.".
Zero misspellings are on record for poor as a church mouse in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Alteration of earlier hungry as a church mouse, from the fact that Catholic and Orthodox priests are called to scrupulously prevent any crumb of the sacrament of Eucharist (the bread which is understood to be Christ's body) from falling on the altar or to t… The correct English form is poor as a church mouse, spelled P-O-O-R- -A-S- -A- -C-H-U-R-C-H- -M-O-U-S-E.
Definition
- 1Very poor, to the point of starving or begging; utterly destitute.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how poor as a church mouse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
But to return to our public functions; that we have had a decided turn for the church appears from the fact that the church-mouse is a recognised order amongst us, and it is our just pride that we alone have preserved the genuine character of the institution as founded by the Apostles, inasmuch as our poverty has passed into a proverb— "as poor as a churc…
She was an Eastern Virginia woman, and, although poor as a church mouse, thought herself superior to West Virginia people.
Etymology
Alteration of earlier hungry as a church mouse, from the fact that Catholic and Orthodox priests are called to scrupulously prevent any crumb of the sacrament of Eucharist (the bread which is understood to be Christ's body) from falling on the altar or to the ground, meaning that church mice had no crumbs to feed on. This phrase seems to be a corruption of the even earlier expression “as quiet as a church mouse” from the 1300s.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.