drought

American  

[drout] / draʊt /

Also drouth

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, 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

• droughty adjective

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

Beef prices are at record highs, up 12% from a year ago, because a major drought in the Plains states in 2022 forced many ranchers to sell off their livestock, reducing cattle inventories nationwide.

From Barron's • Apr. 20, 2026

Florida is in the midst of its worst drought in 25 years, but the dry spell actually ranked far down on the list of challenges these bedraggled growers were facing.

From Slate • Apr. 20, 2026

The price of imported fresh tomatoes, on the other hand, is up 15% month over month because of drought conditions in Mexico, import tariffs, and fertilizer costs.

From Barron's • Apr. 20, 2026

During a five-year drought that ended in 1992, the San Diego County Water Authority lost a third of its allocation, which came almost entirely from imported shipments.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

Could he, could he possibly, hope that the short dry spell would continue into a drawn-out drought?

From "Abel's Island" by William Steig

Related Words

• lack
• scarcity