poor as Job

adj

"poor-as-job" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“poor as Job” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Extremely poor, destitute.

Corpus desk

Index EN-poor-as-job · poor as Job · English

poor as Job · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 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.

Key facts for poor as Job
PropertyValue
Headwordpoor as Job
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “poor as Job” in English

poor as Jobsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

poor as Job is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Extremely poor, destitute.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for poor as Job in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: The Book of Job depicts the eponymous wealthy and pious landowner as losing all his possessions and becoming afflicted with various ailments and misfortunes, as a test of his faith by God. The correct English form is poor as Job, spelled P-O-O-R- -A-S- -J-O-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    Extremely poor, destitute.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how poor as Job appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. 1804, Maria Edgeworth, "The Will", Popular Tales, 1813, Paraclete Potter, page 101. Sir Plantagenet's son is as poor as Job; so she must have recourse to Marvel; and, if she gives him proper encouragement, he'll pay the money in a trice.

Etymology

The Book of Job depicts the eponymous wealthy and pious landowner as losing all his possessions and becoming afflicted with various ailments and misfortunes, as a test of his faith by God.

Synonyms

poor as a church mousepoor as Job's turkey

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "poor as Job"?
"poor as Job" is spelled P-O-O-R- -A-S- -J-O-B.
What does "poor as Job" mean?
As an adjective, "poor as Job" means: Extremely poor, destitute.
What is the origin of the word "poor as Job"?
The Book of Job depicts the eponymous wealthy and pious landowner as losing all his possessions and becoming afflicted with various ailments and misfortunes, as a test of his faith by God. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list