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The Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s hit which U.S. region the hardest?

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drought

American  

[draut] / draʊt /

Also drouth

noun

• droughts
  plural

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, want, lack, scarcity

3. Archaic. thirst.

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drought British  

/ draʊt /

noun

1. a prolonged period of scanty rainfall

2. a prolonged shortage

3. Archaic and Scot form: drouth. an archaic or dialect word for thirst

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drought Scientific  

/ drout /

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

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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

• droughty
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• droughts
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

drought droughts

The warming phase of a natural climate cycle, El Nino raises sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific, triggering changes in weather that can increase the risk of drought and flooding, and exacerbate man-made global warming.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

El Nino typically brings severe drought to Indonesia, but experts note that slash-and-burn practices and drying of peatlands have made previously resistant landscapes increasingly fire-prone.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

"We encourage people to be aware of the impacts of drought and use a little less water to speed up the recovery from drought."

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

Yorkshire Water said it was not planning to introduce water restrictions for customers at this stage despite the drought declaration.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

This has been a whole terrible time, from the beginning of the drought that left so many without food, and then the night of the ants, to now, the worst tragedy of all.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Climate experts have warned that the 2026-2027 El Niño is likely to cause major shifts in weather patterns around the world, intensifying droughts in some areas and floods in others.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Instead of rain in the spring, Boulder gets more droughts that “have substantial implications for agriculture, wildfires and water availability.”

From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2026

"There are longer droughts, more extreme heatwaves, while new pests and diseases are spreading," Braj told AFP.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

The droughts might come to an end this year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 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

Related Words

• lack
• scarcity