drought
[ drout ]
/ draʊt /
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noun
a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops.
an extended shortage: a drought of good writing.
Archaic. thirst.
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Also drouth [drouth]. /draʊθ/.
Origin of drought
pronunciation note for drought
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] /draʊt/ and [drouth] /draʊθ/ 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] /draʊt/ is common everywhere in educated speech, and is the usual printed form.
In American English, drought with the pronunciation [drout] /draʊt/ is common everywhere in educated speech, and is the usual printed form.
WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH drought
draught, droughtDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for drought
British Dictionary definitions for drought
drought
/ (draʊt) /
noun
a prolonged period of scanty rainfall
a prolonged shortage
an archaic or dialect word for thirst Archaic and Scot form: drouth
Derived forms of drought
droughty, adjectiveWord Origin for drought
Old English drūgoth; related to Dutch droogte; see dry
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Scientific definitions for drought
drought
[ drout ]
A long period of abnormally low rainfall, lasting up to several years.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.