drought

[ drout ]

noun

1. a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops.
2. an extended shortage:

   a drought of good writing.

   Synonyms: famine, paucity, dearth, lack, scarcity, want

3. Archaic. thirst.

drought

/ draʊt /

noun

1. a prolonged period of scanty rainfall
2. a prolonged shortage
3. an archaic or dialect word for thirst Archaic and Scot formdrouth

drought

/ drout /

1. A long period of abnormally low rainfall, lasting up to several years.

Pronunciation Note

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 [drout] and [drouth] 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 [drout] is common everywhere in educated speech, and is the usual printed form.

Derived Forms

• ˈdroughty, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of drought¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English drūgath, equivalent to drūg- (base of drȳge “dry”) + -ath noun suffix; cognate with Dutch droogte “dryness”; dry, -th ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of drought¹

Old English drūgoth; related to Dutch droogte; see dry

Example Sentences

McAfee said the government should consider raw milk and other whole food insurance programs, like the USDA’s crop insurance program which provides for farmers whose fields and crops have been impacted by drought, flooding or fire — or the more recent milk insurance program which provides money for dairy farmers whose herds have been infected with bird flu.

From Los Angeles Times

Gene therapies based on such gene editing are already being used to treat inherited diseases, fight cancer and create drought- and heat-tolerant crops.

From Science Daily

“The benefit of removing this enclosure is to allow elk to access additional habitat, increase the species’ population resilience during drought, and promote a more natural population cycle.”

From Los Angeles Times

In Kenya, for example, 1.7 million people are predicted to be food insecure by January 2025 due to a prolonged and severe drought between 2020 and 2023, floods in 2024, and the below-average rainfall that is now forecast for the end of this year.

From Salon

This same drought has affected a number of other African countries, too.

From Salon

Related Words

• lack
• scarcity