drought

English

Alternative forms

• drouth (Scotland, Northern England, poetry)

Etymology

From Middle English droghte, drouȝte, druhhþe, druȝþe, drouȝth, from Old English drūgaþ. Cognate with Dutch droogte, Low German Dröögde.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɹaʊt/
• IPA^(key): [dɹʌʊt]
• 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, 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.

Derived terms

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

 

Synonyms

• losing streak

Antonyms

• winning streak

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
• 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)
• Bengali: খরা (bn) (khora)
• 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), 旱灾 (zh) (hànzāi), 乾旱／干旱 (zh) (gānhàn), 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, siccité (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 f, secco (it) m, asciugaggine f
• Japanese: 旱魃 (かんばつ, kanbatsu)
• Kannada: ಬರ (kn) (bara)
• Kazakh: құрғақшылық (kk) (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: siccitas f
• Latvian: sausums m
• Lithuanian: sausra f
• Luxembourgish: Dréchent (lb) f
• Macedonian: суша f (suša)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Malay: kemarau
• Malayalam: വരൾച്ച (varaḷcca)
• Maltese: nixfa f
• Maori: tauraki
• Marathi: दुष्काळ (duṣkāḷ)
• Mirandese: seca
• Mongolian: ган (mn) (gan)
• Ngazidja Comorian: ntsahaya nkavu class 9
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tørke m or f

  Nynorsk: tørke m

• Occitan: secada (oc) f
• Old Persian: 𐎯𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐎶 (dušiyāram)
• Parthian: 𐭃𐭅𐭔𐭉𐭀𐭓 (dušyār)
• Pashto: وچکالي (ps) f (wəčkālí)
• Persian: خشک‌سالی (xošk-sâli)
• Pitjantjatjara: ailuru
• 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: суша f

  Roman: suša (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: за́суха f (zásuxa)
• Urdu: سوکھا m (sūkhā)
• Uyghur: قۇرغاقچىلىق (qurghaqchiliq)
• Uzbek: qurgʻoqchilik (uz)
• Vietnamese: hạn hán (vi)
• Volapük: lesig (vo)
• Võro: põud
• Welsh: sychder (cy) m, sychdwr m
• Westrobothnian:
• Yakut: кураан (kuraan)
• ǃXóõ: ǁqáa