blight
Americannoun
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Plant Pathology.
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the rapid and extensive discoloration, wilting, and death of plant tissues.
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a disease so characterized.
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any cause of impairment, destruction, ruin, or frustration.
Extravagance was the blight of the family.
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the state or result of being blighted or deteriorated; dilapidation; decay.
urban blight.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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any plant disease characterized by withering and shrivelling without rotting See also potato blight
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any factor, such as bacterial attack or air pollution, that causes the symptoms of blight in plants
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a person or thing that mars or prevents growth, improvement, or prosperity
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an ugly urban district
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the state or condition of being blighted or spoilt
verb
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to cause or suffer a blight
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(tr) to frustrate or disappoint
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(tr) to spoil; destroy
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Any of numerous plant diseases that cause leaves, stems, fruits, and tissues to wither and die. Rust, mildew, and smut are blights.
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The bacterium, fungus, or virus that causes such a disease.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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blightsimple
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blightssimple
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have blightedperfect
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has blightedperfect
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am blightingprogressive
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are blightingprogressive
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is blightingprogressive
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have been blightingperfect progressive
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has been blightingperfect progressive
Past
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blightedsimple
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had blightedperfect
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was blightingprogressive
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were blightingprogressive
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had been blightingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blight
First recorded in 1605–15; of uncertain origin
Explanation
A blight is a disease that hurts plants and makes their leaves wither. It can also affect neighborhoods. Urban blight refers to a part of the city where things are falling apart. Blight rhymes with bright, but it’s the opposite of sunshine; instead of making plants grow, it cripples them. The Irish Potato Famine was an example of a blight. In 1845, more than a third of the potato crops were ruined. The plants turned black and their leaves dried up and people who relied on potatoes for most of their meals also withered and experienced extreme hardship and hunger. You might want to think of it this way: a blight makes people — or plants — fight for their lives.
Vocabulary lists containing blight
St. Patrick's Day Vocabulary: Words With Irish and Gaelic Roots
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Oedipus the King
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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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:
Europeans have long shunned air conditioning, viewing it as noisy, a blight on their architectural heritage and, above all, unnecessary as long as the summers were mild.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
NCST, a nonprofit that aims to boost affordable housing and fight neighborhood blight, praised provisions related to preservation and rehabilitation.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
The pandemic was and is a blight on compassion.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Those same stadium-linked businesses backing the billboard blight initiative are also behind some of the city’s most visible and controversial digital advertising displays on stadium properties, which have changed Inglewood’s streetscape in recent years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
This sort of person is a blight on good professionalism.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
I wish we could point to a new robust corner of Minnehaha and Lake Street where the condemned Third Precinct still blights the corner, but we can’t.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2025
To many, it’s ugly vandalism that blights the city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024
She added: "We do need to tackle at source these kind of behaviours that are blights on our community."
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2023
Lashari, the city official, laments the “decay and disorder” that blights Gawalmandi and other traditional neighborhoods like it.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 12, 2022
Mars has no insects, parasites, or blights to deal with, and the Hab maintains perfect growing temperature and moisture at all times.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
The army has been blighted by several scandals -- particularly over an unpopular mobilisation drive, the treatment of conscripts and reports of widespread absenteeism and equipment shortages in some units.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
He announced that he would resign as prime minister and Labour Party leader in June after a string of scandals, missteps and policy U-turns blighted his leadership.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
Burnham would inherit an economy blighted by low productivity, rising borrowing costs and an aging population.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
It would be easy to say this World Cup is about to be blighted by referees throwing around red cards.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
As I drove out of town, I saw an ancient woman standing in a blighted field.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Slavery shaped the Americas for four centuries, blighting the entire hemisphere.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2026
The 76-year-old retired state employee, former gun store owner and avid elk hunter from La Grande, Oregon, is on a mission to keep turbines and transmission towers from blighting the rural landscape.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2025
The "Need to Sell" programme would remain open to support residents "until the blighting effect of HS2 has fully receded", he added.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2024
Next time you feel like littering, think of the bird you may harm and the beauty you are blighting.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 25, 2023
And whether from its fumes or from the blighting of our hopes, my husband began to suffer again from rheumatism, and at the same time the old bouts of fever began.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
