(n.) Dryness; want of rain or of water; especially, such dryness of the weather as affects the earth, and prevents the growth of plants; aridity.
(n.) Thirst; want of drink.
(n.) Scarcity; lack.
Example Sentences:
(1) Somalia has faced drought; famine; decades of conflict, now involving the Islamist rebels of al-Shabaab among other groups; the absence of an effective, central authority; and spiralling food prices.
(2) The loss of summer sea ice has led to unusual warming of the Arctic atmosphere, that in turn impacts weather patterns in the northern hemisphere , that can result in persistent extreme weather such as droughts, heatwaves and flooding," she said.
(3) President Nicolás Maduro has blamed the crisis on the fall in global oil prices, a drought that has hit hydroelectric power generation, and an “economic war” by rightwing businessmen and politicians.
(4) Agir, launched in June as the Sahel crisis was taking hold, lays out a roadmap for better co-ordination of humanitarian and development aid to protect the most vulnerable people when drought hits again.
(5) In the end, the emails from citizen scientists nailed the timing: “looks like it started maybe December 2015”; the severity: “I’ve seen dieback before, but not like this”; and the cause: “guessing it may be the consequence of the four-year drought”.
(6) "Groundwater levels in parts of our region are lower than they were during the 1976 drought, following below average rainfall for 18 of the last 23 months.
(7) Others are new: changing family compositions because of HIV, increasing frequency of droughts and rapid fluctuations in international commodity prices.
(8) It said the consequences of increased concentrations of those gases in the atmosphere were drought, flooding, wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels that had especially adverse impacts on the poor.
(9) They can expect to be swamped more often by tidal surges, battered by ever stronger typhoons and storms, and hit by deeper droughts.
(10) This was evidence, it seemed, for a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll which ranked drought as people’s top issue of concern.
(11) Parts of England and Wales have been hit by flooding in recent weeks after unusually wet weather followed two dry winters in a row that had left swaths of England in drought.
(12) "Heat stress, extreme precipitation, inland and coastal flooding, as well as drought and water scarcity pose risks in urban areas, with risks amplified for those lacking essential infrastructure and services or living in exposed areas," says the report, which makes this forecast with "very high confidence".
(13) Officials with the US Drought Monitor say a ridge of high pressure is to blame for keeping storms off the Pacific coast and guiding them to the east.
(14) Welbeck's goal drought came to an end when Rafael da Silva wriggled clear on the right and managed to dig out a deep cross that the unmarked Adnan Januzaj, whom Moyes felt came in for some rough treatment, headed against the far post.
(15) A cDNA clone encoding a Brassica napus drought-induced 22 kDa (BnD22) protein has been isolated and characterized.
(16) Parts of the state were finally beginning to rebuild on Sunday after weeks of rain and flooding that have made Texas a place of extremes: severe drought conditions earlier in the year that have given way to unprecedented rainfall in some areas.
(17) The authors report on the results of a 2-year study on the ecology and resistance to drought of B. umbilicatus and B. senegalensis on 3 temporary ponds in the North-Sudan area (region of Tambacounda, Senegal).
(18) The poor are often the people deeply rooted in place, whether they’re fisherfolk in the Mekong Delta (due to go underwater from rising seas) or farmers in desertifying Africa or India, where a horrific heatwave and drought killed at least 300 last month and left 330 million without enough water.
(19) Businesses, governments and all water managers must quickly and intelligently take measures to reduce vulnerability to droughts.
(20) America's drought threatens a recurrence of the 2008 global food crisis, when soaring prices set off riots and unrest to parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, food experts warn.
Shortage
Definition:
(n.) Amount or extent of deficiency, as determined by some requirement or standard; as, a shortage in money accounts.
Example Sentences:
(1) This is a fascinating possibility for solving the skin shortage problem especially in burn cases.
(2) Acceptance of less than ideal donors is ill-advised even though rejection of such donors conflicts with the current shortage of organs.
(3) Hoursoglou thinks a shortage of skilled people with a good grounding in core subjects such as maths and science is a potential problem for all manufacturers.
(4) The UN estimates that at least 10 million people in east Africa will be in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of severe food shortages, failed harvest, rising food prices and conflict in the region.
(5) Housing charity Shelter puts the shortage of affordable housing in England at between 40,000 and 60,000 homes a year.
(6) Midwives are facing increasing pressure with chronic staff shortages, the ongoing baby boom and increasing numbers of complications in pregnancy.
(7) Difficulties in their management are attributable to late presentation, high patient default rate, complete lack of radiotherapy, and shortage of chemotherapeutic agents.
(8) A total of 64 male patients with varying forms of coronary heart disease (CHD), aged 43 to 65 years, and free of diabetes mellitus, obesity and arterial hypertension symptoms, were studied in conditions of emotional stress simulated, using the method of mental calculations with shifts of attention under time shortage.
(9) The initial impact was felt on the local currency market where a shortage of foreign exchange caused a looming crisis.
(10) It is resulted from a wrong interpretation of the lung pathology shown in an X-ray picture or its complete ignorance, absence of a regular double reading of fluorographic images, constant shortage of fluorographic films and presence of risk factors.
(11) The audit states: "The financial position of Zuma deteriorated over time, mainly as a result of the fact of the shortage in daily funding required to fund his lifestyle … Zuma's cash requirements by far exceeded his ability to fund such requirements from his salary."
(12) For any blood type, there is a complex interaction among the optimal inventory level, daily demand level, the transfusion to crossmatch ratio, the crossmatch release period and the age of arriving units that determine the shortage and outdate rate.
(13) A shortage of preventive medicine (PM) physicians exists in the United States.
(14) Possible applications of the study in alleviating rural doctor shortages are discussed.
(15) With skills and labour shortages set to continue, there’s a risk that many vacancies will be left unfilled which could act as a brake on output growth in the UK in the years ahead.” The most recent labour market data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that while EU nationals were still arriving in the UK, they were doing so in smaller numbers than in the past.
(16) Since shortage of energy is an important factor in loss of contractile performance following an hypoxic period, we tried to find a relationship between the loss of force production upon reoxygenation and the demand, supply, and utilisation of energy.
(17) In both dentitions almost all decay was untreated, indicating lack of dental treatment available due to the shortage of dental manpower.
(18) There is rapidly accumulating evidence that doctor shortages are causing serious problems, including the part-closure of A&E units at hospitals in Chorley in Lancashire and Grantham in Lincolnshire.
(19) Backlogs and staff shortages have long been seized upon by veterans groups lobbying for more resources, but it is the apparent cover-up of the scale of the problem that has transformed these latest complaints into a growing political problem for the White House.
(20) Aid agencies warn of a major outbreak of diseases such as hepatitis E, malaria and cholera due to severe malnutrition, water shortages and contaminated drinking water.