drought
/dɹaʊt/noun
drought is spelled D-R-O-U-G-H-T: 7 letters and one syllable. It appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, drought means “A period of unusually low rainfall, longer and more severe than a dry spell” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of drought is droughts.
How many letters and syllables are in drought?
| Letters | 7: D-R-O-U-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.9 times per million words; the 8,266th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is drought?
Drought appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce drought?
- /dɹaʊt/
- [dɹɐʊ̯t]
- [dɹɜʊ̯t]
Drought has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-drought.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-drought.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of drought
- droughts plural
- drouth
- druft
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does drought mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A period of unusually low rainfall, longer and more severe than a dry spell.
His village had faced a drought twice.
- 2
informalA longer than expected term without success, particularly in sport.
Sri Lanka ended their ten-game drought with a consolation win over Bangladesh.
- 3
archaicdryness, aridness, dry heat
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Drought in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense period of unusually low rain fall:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sécheresse |
| German | Dürre, Trockenzeit, Trockenheit |
| Portuguese | seca, estiagem |
| Spanish | sequía, seca |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does drought come from?
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).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).