drought
n. C / Un. a long period of time with little or no rain. This makes it very difficult for plants to grow and for people to have enough water.
n. a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water. Often used metaphorically to describe a lack of something specific over time.
The crops died because of the long drought.
Farmers in the region are struggling to save their livestock after three years of severe drought.
The local government implemented strict water rationing measures to preserve the dwindling reservoir levels during the most intense drought the state had seen in a century.
From Middle English droughte, droghte, drouȝte, from Old English drūgaþ. Cognate with Dutch droogte, Low German Dröögde. By surface analysis, dry + -t (abstract nominal suffix).
Countable when referring to a specific event; uncountable when discussing the general phenomenon.
The country is in a drouthThe country is in a droughtLearners often misspell the word based on its pronunciation; 'drouth' is an archaic or dialectal variant that should be avoided in modern standard English.