blighted
Americanadjective
-
Plant Pathology. affected with blight, a disease or condition characterized by the rapid and extensive discoloration, wilting, and death of plant tissues.
Small, black fungal fruiting bodies form on the blighted twigs and produce infective spores.
-
dilapidated or deteriorated.
They saw the potential for the blighted building to provide affordable housing once renovated, and took on the project.
-
(of a region, city, area, etc.) not flourishing; stagnant, run-down, socially depressed, etc..
A new fitness center and natural foods market are replacing a blighted corner with jobs, economic activity, and healthier lifestyles.
-
ruined or marred.
The people who forget their past are condemned to a blighted future.
verb
Other Word Forms
- unblighted adjective
- unblightedly adverb
- unblightedness noun
Etymology
Origin of blighted
blight + -ed 2 ( def. ) blight for defs. 1, 2, 4; blight + -ed 3 ( def. ) blight for def. 3; blight + -ed 1 ( def. ) blighted for def. 5
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.
On a frigid January day Ms. Kozma drove me around a dense industrial area, pointing out how factory construction has blighted the landscape and disrupted traffic.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026
O’Brien is right, we desperately need hope, something to hold onto when the world and the film industry are at their most bleak and blighted.
From Salon • Mar. 16, 2026
The tour of Australia was blighted by mistakes on and off the field.
From BBC • Mar. 6, 2026
Mero, in collaboration with fellow street artist Wild Life, has turned the blighted space into a fantastical haven with a knight, a dragon and more — a decaying castle from a bygone era.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 4, 2026
Nothing prospered there in Hearth or tilth, all being blighted with illness, the spring seed frozen in the ground or the ripe grain rotten, and so it had been for many years.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
![]()
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.