These words refer to a lack of what is desirable for or necessary to a decent standard of living. Want is the most general of these; as an abstract noun, it indicates an unwilling and harmful lack of the necessities of life: faces pinched by want ; the two-thirds of the world that are at present doomed to disease-ridden lives of want . Want can be used, also, apart from an economic context to refer to any sort of desire, whether momentary or abiding, whether deeply felt or trivial: returning to his homeland became for him a lifelong want ; a husband who could cater to her every want . Pauperism and beggary concentrate on economic want , but both have become a public charge; beggary refers to such a without resources, has become a public charge; beggary refers to such a person who, while not a public charge, makes public appeals for money or hand-outs. Nowadays, the pauper would more likely be called a welfare recipient, the beggar a scrounger. Similarly, their condition would be referred to by one of the following words. Either terms, may still be used however, for its strong connotation of helpless dependence on others: fearing that his daughters would reduce him to pauperism (or beggary).

Of the remaining words, indigence indicates the mildest degree of economic want, referring to someone who is poor and lacks ordinary comforts but is not desperate for the means to sustain life: a recession that reduced many families to a state of indigence . Poverty can indicate a more severe state of economic want than indigence : those who, living in poverty , seldom have the means to acquire adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Poverty can function as a generic term that includes all forms and degrees of economic want: the government’s war on poverty . Economists sometimes find it convenient to name an arbitrary income figure and consider those who earn less to be living in poverty .

Penury indicates a state of poverty that cramps or hampers normal life; thus it points specifically to a severer degree of want than indigence . Even more severe is the state indicated by privation in which the economic hardship has become painful or harmful: a life of ignominious penury wherein the loss of a few cents was tantamount to disaster; permanent damage to the body and brain because of malnutrition resulting from extended privation in childhood.

Destitution is the most severe of all these words in pointing to a state of poverty so harsh as to endanger life: the utter destitution of the peasants on the eve of the French Revolution. Destitution can sometimes refer also to what has been abandoned, particularly to face unfavourable conditions: fatherless children left in want and destitution .

These words refer to feelings of need for some sort of object or satisfaction. Want is the most general and informal of these. It can range in intensity from expressing a weak preference or inclination to the most extreme states of need or passion: asking if he wanted more butter; wanting very much to see a film; wanting the new sports car more than anything in the world; gasping out how desperately he wanted her. The word can also convey, more simply, a lack of the necessities of life, whether consciously expressed or not: peasants who wanted food, clothing and decent homes.

Wish is like wise very general and wide-ranging in application. It can suggest mental fantasy, as in a daydream, and can express regret for past action or hopes about the future, whether they be realistic or not: wishing that a Prince Charming would come along and rescue her from her drab existence; wishing that he hadn’t made such a fool of himself the night before; wishing to do well in the exam tomorrow; wishing that one day he would be a millionaire. Wish can be used also as a slightly more formal equivalent of want: Do you wish another helping of meat?

Desire can also function as a more formal substitute for want: asking if he desired another drink; the many people who desire better working conditions and more education for their children. The special province of the word is in referring to sexual or sensual appetite or need: a growing sexual hunger that more and more desired expression; desiring her more intensely than any woman he had ever know; desiring all sorts of sybaritic pleasures.

Crave , in its most restricted use, relates most concretely to hunger: surprised to find himself craving a taste of Chinese food. The word is widely used in other ways, to suggest either a mild hankering or a gnawing inclination: craving a change of pace in their humdrum life. It can even, by an analogy comparing hunger to sexual appetite, refer unambiguously to intense erotic need: craving another long kiss and close embrace. In this case, it stresses mere appetite, whereas desire might sometimes more inclusively suggest a tincture of love and affection as well. Covet most specifically refers to a longing to possess the material goods or anything that rightfully belongs to someone else: coveting his neighbour’s land; coveting his fiend’s wife. As now used, the word may suggest a feeling as weak as that indicated by wish or as persistent as that suggested by craving . It may suggest harmless envy or a poisonous determination to possess: coveting the unrestrained exuberance of the other people at the party; coveting the jewels that lay unattended on the table.