noun
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a prolonged period of scanty rainfall
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a prolonged shortage
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Archaic and Scot form: drouth. an archaic or dialect word for thirst
Pronunciation
Drought and drouth, nouns derived from the adjective dry plus a suffix, are spellings that represent two phonetic developments of the same Old English word, and are pronounced and respectively. The latter pronunciation, therefore, is not a mispronunciation of drought. The now unproductive suffix -th1 and its alternate form -t were formerly used to derive nouns from adjectives or verbs, resulting in such pairs as drouth — drought from dry and highth—height (the former now obsolete) from high. In American English, drought with the pronunciation is common everywhere in educated speech, and is the usual printed form.
Usage
What does drought mean? A drought is a long period with no rain or unusually low levels of rain or other precipitation. Because weather and climate are different in different places throughout the world, there is no single definition of what counts as a drought. However, it always refers to a significant period of dry weather. Droughts have many harmful effects, including water shortages, crop failure, and in some cases famine, among other things. The word is often used in the phrase drought conditions, referring to very dry conditions resulting from a lack of rainfall. Drought can also be used in a figurative way to refer to an extended shortage of or long period without something, as in The city has the longest championship drought in all of sports. Example: The drought continued for more than three weeks and wildfires started to appear.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of drought
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English drūgath, equivalent to drūg- (base of drȳge “dry”) + -ath noun suffix; cognate with Dutch droogte “dryness”; see dry, -th 1
Explanation
When there is a drought somewhere, there's not enough rainfall. In certain areas, a drought can last for weeks, months, sometimes even years! Forget about running your lawn sprinkler during a drought; the water is needed for drinking, bathing, and toilet flushing. Another way drought can be used is to refer to a shortage of something (other than rainfall) that lasts for a long period of time, like a drought in job growth during a recession. Typically a drought is not a good thing and something you hope to avoid. For example, if your friend Kenny hasn't gone on a date in five years, it's safe to say that he is having a romantic drought.
Vocabulary lists containing drought
Vocabulary from Beyoncé's "Lemonade"
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Weather and Climate - Introductory
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The United States
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Whilst Storms Austen and Boelo provided some short-term hydrological benefit, 82% of England remains in drought status according to the Environment Agency.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
It was an era of climate change, supply chain collapse, earthquakes, famine, disease, migration, drought and armed incursions and invasions.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
The Agency have said that England will need at least 20% more rainfall than average across the next six months to be considered out of drought by spring.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
The combination of reservoirs and desalination plants can heal the Southwest of perpetual drought, and California will probably be able to sell excess water to Arizona, Nevada and Northern Mexico.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
The river is nearly gone now because of the drought.
From "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez
Most of the world's rice comes from Asia, many parts of which has been impacted by droughts, floods and heatwaves due to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
The 40 million residents of the Colorado River basin and nonresident beneficiaries of its water supply, including most Californians, will have to do more with less as global warming causes more and deeper droughts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
The climate pattern known as super El Niño can lead to severe droughts, intense heatwaves, torrential rainfall and catastrophic flooding in different parts of the world.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026
That is expected to have widespread effects including flooding, droughts and other extreme events that are estimated to peak in early 2027.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
But then something worse happened: Terrible droughts struck the parts of the world that always grew the most food.
From "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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