drought

See also: Drought

English

Alternative forms

• drouth (Scotland, Northern England, poetry). The pronunciation with /θ/ properly belongs with this now archaic doublet.
• druft (Northern England, dialectal).

Etymology

From Middle English droghte, drouȝte, druhhþe, druȝþe, drouȝth, from Old English drūgaþ, equivalent to dry +‎ -th. Cognate with Dutch droogte, Low German Dröögde.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /dɹaʊt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): [dɹʌʊt]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊt

Noun

drought (countable and uncountable, plural droughts)

1. A period of unusually low rainfall, longer and more severe than a dry spell.
   • 2012 January, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26 January 2012, page 70:

     Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.

2. (by extension, informal) A longer than expected term without success, particularly in sport.

   Synonym: losing streak

   Antonym: winning streak

   • 2021 March 28, Phil McNulty, “Albania 0-2 England”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Kane had been going through something of a drought by his own standards. His previous England goal came 500 days ago, in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Kosovo, and his header in Tirana ended a run of 496 minutes without scoring.

3. (archaic) dryness, aridness, dry heat
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:40:

     Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.

   • 1814, The Right Honorable Sir John Sinclair, chapter XI, in Appendix to the General Report of the Agricultural State, and Political Circumstances, of Scotland, page 16:

     The consequences are, that a few days of severe drought, in the early parts of summer, or even when the grain is ripening, is sometimes fatal to the crop on moss.

   • 1817, Adam Smith, chapter V, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, volume 2, page 344:

     The seasons most unfavourable to the crop are those of excessive drought or excessive rain.

Derived terms

• absolute drought
• antidrought
• droughtless
• droughtproof
• drought-tolerant
• droughty
• flash drought
• megadrought
• predrought

 

Translations

period of unusually low rain fall

• Afrikaans: droogte
• Albanian: thatësirë (sq) f
• Amharic: ድርቅ (dərḳ)
• Arabic: جَفَاف m (jafāf)
• Armenian: երաշտ (hy) (erašt)
• Aromanian: seatsitã f, uscãciuni f, sicãturã f
• Assamese: খৰালি (khorali)
• Asturian: seca (ast) f, secura f
• Atayal: mtkzyay
• Avestan: 𐬛𐬎𐬱𐬌𐬌𐬁𐬭𐬆 (dušiiār^ə), 𐬛𐬎𐬲𐬌𐬌𐬁𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 (dužiiāⁱriia)
• Azerbaijani: quraqlıq (az)
• Bashkir: ҡоролоҡ (qoroloq)
• Basque: lehorte
• Belarusian: за́суха f (zásuxa), су́ша f (súša), сухме́нь f (suxmjénʹ)
• Bengali: খরা (bn) (khora)
• Bikol Central: tag-alang
• Breton: sec'hor (br) f
• Bulgarian: су́ша (bg) f (súša)
• Burmese: မိုးခေါင်ခြင်း (mui:hkaunghkrang:), ရေငတ်ခြင်း (re-ngathkrang:)
• Catalan: sequera f, secada (ca) f, seca (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 旱災／旱灾 (zh) (hànzāi), 乾旱／干旱 (zh) (gānhàn)

• Czech: sucho (cs) n
• Danish: tørke (da) c
• Dutch: droogte (nl) f
• Esperanto: trosekeco, sekegeco
• Estonian: põud
• Faroese: turkur m
• Finnish: kuivuus (fi)
• French: sécheresse (fr) f
• Galician: seca (gl) f, secura (gl) f
• Georgian: გვალვა (gvalva)
• German: Dürre (de) f, Trockenzeit (de) f, Trockenheit (de) f
• Greek: ξηρασία (el) (xirasía)

  Ancient: ἀβροχία f (abrokhía), αὐχμός m (aukhmós)

• Guaraní: kyve'y
• Gujarati: દુકાળ m (dukāḷ)
• Haitian Creole: sechrès
• Hebrew: בַּצֹּרֶת \ בצרת (he)
• Hindi: सूखा (hi) m (sūkhā), अनावृष्टि (hi) f (anāvŕṣṭi), खुश्की (hi) f (khuśkī), अकाल (hi) m (akāl), अवर्षण (hi) m (avarṣaṇ)
• Hungarian: aszály (hu)
• Iban: sanggau
• Icelandic: þurrkar m
• Indonesian: kekeringan (id)
• Irish: triomach m
• Italian: siccità (it) f, secco (it) m, asciugaggine f
• Japanese: 旱魃 (ja) (かんばつ, kanbatsu)
• Kannada: ಬರ (kn) (bara)
• Kazakh: құрғақшылық (qūrğaqşylyq)
• Khmer: រាំងរំហួត (rĕəng rumhuət), រាំងរឹះ (rĕəng rɨh)
• Korean: 가뭄 (ko) (gamum)
• Kyrgyz: кургакчылык (kurgakcılık)
• Lao: ແລ້ງ (lǣng), ຝົນແລ້ງ (fon lǣng), ຟ້າແລ້ງ (fā lǣng), ໄພແຫ້ງແລ້ງ (phai ngǣ lǣng)
• Latin: siccitās f
• Latvian: sausums m
• Lithuanian: sausra f
• Luxembourgish: Dréchent (lb) f
• Macedonian: суша f (suša)
• Malay: kemarau
• Malayalam: വരൾച്ച (varaḷcca)
• Maltese: nixfa f
• Maori: raki (mi), tauraki, taurakitanga
• Marathi: दुष्काळ (duṣkāḷ)
• Middle English: droghte
• Mirandese: seca
• Mongolian: ган (mn) (gan)
• Neapolitan: secceta f
• Ngazidja Comorian: ntsahaya nkavu class 9
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tørke m or f

  Nynorsk: tørke m

• Occitan: secada (oc) f, secaresso f
• Old English: drūgaþ f
• Old Persian: 𐎯𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐎶 (du-š-y-a-r-m /⁠dušiyāram⁠/)
• Parthian: 𐭃𐭅𐭔𐭉𐭀𐭓 (dwšyʾr /⁠dušyār⁠/)
• Pashto: وچکالي (ps) f (wəčkālí)
• Persian: خشک‌سالی (xošk-sâli)
• Pitjantjatjara: ailuru
• Plautdietsch: Drieejetiet f
• Polish: susza (pl) f
• Portuguese: seca (pt) f, estiagem (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਸੋਕਾ (pa) (sokā)
• Quechua: ch'akiy, ch'aki pacha
• Romanian: secetă (ro), uscăciune (ro) f
• Russian: за́суха (ru) f (zásuxa), засу́шливость (ru) f (zasúšlivostʹ), сушь (ru) f (sušʹ)
• Sanskrit: अवृष्टि (sa) f (avṛṣṭi), अनावृष्टि (sa) f (anāvṛṣṭi), दुर्वृष्टि (sa) f (durvṛṣṭi)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: су̑ша f

  Roman: sȗša (sh) f

• Shona: shangwa
• Sinhalese: නියඟය (si) (niyaⁿgaya)
• Slovak: sucho n
• Slovene: suša (sl) f
• Spanish: sequía (es) f, seca (es) f
• Swahili: kiangazi (sw), ukame (sw)
• Swedish: torka (sv) c
• Tagalog: bisi, baisi, tagtuyot
• Tajik: хушксолӣ (xušksolī)
• Tamil: வறட்சி (ta) (vaṟaṭci)
• Tatar: корылык (tt) (qorılıq)
• Telugu: అనావృష్టి (te) (anāvr̥ṣṭi)
• Thai: ภัยแล้ง (pai-lɛ́ɛng), น้ำแล้ง (náam-lɛ́ɛng), แล้ง (th) (lɛ́ɛng)
• Tibetan: ཐེན་པ (then pa)
• Tigrinya: ድርቂ (dərḳi)
• Turkish: kuraklık (tr)
• Turkmen: guraklyk
• Ukrainian: посу́ха f (posúxa), засу́ха f (zasúxa)
• Urdu: سوکھا m (sūkhā)
• Uyghur: قۇرغاقچىلىق (qurghaqchiliq)
• Uzbek: qurgʻoqchilik (uz)
• Vietnamese: hạn hán (vi)
• Volapük: lesig (vo)
• Võro: põud
• Welsh: sychdwr m sychin f
• Yakut: кураан (kuraan)
• ǃXóõ: ǁqáa

Middle English

Noun

drought

1. Alternative form of droghte