Rags to Riches | Meaning & Examples
Rags to riches is an idiom describing someone’s change in fortunes from poverty to wealth. It is rarely used in a completely literal sense for someone who was actually living in rags but can describe a more general improvement in circumstances.
When used as an adjective, the phrase uses hyphens (e.g., “a rags-to-riches tale”).
These days, social media is full of influencers showing you how they succeeded in pursuing rags to riches in their particular field.
It was the classic Hollywood rags-to-riches story of being a busboy one day to a leading man the next.
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Rags to riches usage
The idiom rags to riches can be used to describe a story or a journey that sees the subject move from poverty to wealth. No doubt part of the reason for its popularity is the combination of a three-word phrase (sometimes called the “power of three” or “rule of three” in rhetoric) and the alliteration of rags and riches. It sticks in our minds and sounds better than “poverty to wealth,” for example.
Rags to riches is usually preceded by a movement verb and the preposition “from.” Not all uses of rags to riches are about financial circumstances; it can also be used to describe a more general but very substantial improvement in circumstances. And it can be applied to businesses and organizations as well as people or animals.
Sometimes the progress from rags to riches seems to depend on luck, chance encounters, or who you know.
If someone promises to take you from rags to riches, you would be wise to be skeptical.
Rags to riches can be used as an adjective, and in this case it is usually hyphenated (e.g., rags-to-riches).
Bankruptcy courts are full of people whose rags-to-riches dreams ended in disaster.
A rags-to-riches story is not always a sadness-to-happiness one, as many pop stars can attest.
Synonyms for rags to riches
There are a few phrases that have a similar meaning to rags to riches, but most will require a different sentence structure (i.e., you won’t just be able to swap them in for rags to riches).
|
Synonym |
Example |
|---|---|
| Cinderella story | Her life is the archetypal Cinderella story. |
| From poverty to prosperity | The appeal of the big lottery jackpots is the possibility of shooting from poverty to prosperity. |
| From zero to hero | When Eliska stepped in to stop the class bully, she found herself going from zero to hero. |
