drought

[ drout ]
/ draʊt /

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.

QUIZZES

CHALLENGE YOURSELF WITH THESE WORDS FROM "LITTLE WOMEN"

"Little Women" may be a classic, but that doesn't mean we all know the meanings of the vocab words from the book. Can you define these words correctly and make Jo proud?
Question 1 of 10
earnest
full seriousness, as of intention or purpose.
a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish.
urgent character; imperativeness; insistence; importunateness.
TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT
Also drouth [drouth] /draʊθ/.

Origin of drought

before 1000; Middle English; Old English drūgath, equivalent to drūg- (base of drȳge dry) + -ath -th1; cognate with Dutch droogte dryness

SYNONYMS FOR drought

2 scarcity, lack, want, dearth, paucity, famine.

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.

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH drought

draught drought (see pronunciation note at draught)

Words nearby drought

drosometer, drosophila, dross, drossy, droste-hülshoff, drought, droughty, drouk, droukit, drouthy, drove
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for drouth

British Dictionary definitions for drouth

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, adjective

Word 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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for drouth

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.