What Is Meant By Drought?

The word drought refers to a lack of water. It usually refers specifically to a period of a shortage of rain fall which is damaging to the growing of crops and other plant life.

The word comes from Middle English via Old English with the word dryge which simply means dry. Words such as dearth, scarcity and paucity come close as a synonyms but none have that connection to water.

Of course the word drought can be and is used to mean an extreme shortage of anything.

Drought affects all living animals, from cattle to fish, from birds to humans, very little survives with the absence of water. It is thought that perhaps drought is what caused the nomadic behaviour of early mankind. It certainly attributes to the migratory behaviour of some types of animal.

Australia is a country which recently has suffered from an almost complete deficiency of rainfall.

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