Word.ws English Dictionary

Dutch disease

Dutch disease noun: an increase in the value derived from the natural-resources sector of the economy, leading to a rise in the valuation of the currency increasingly based on the natural-resources sector, and thus causing a deterioration in the manufacturing sector by making the manufactured goods less competitive in the export marketplace compared to those manufactured by economies with lower valuation currencies, because they are relatively more expensive.

Noun

the Dutch disease

  1. An increase in the value derived from the natural-resources sector of the economy, leading to a rise in the valuation of the currency increasingly based on the natural-resources sector, and thus causing a deterioration in the manufacturing sector by making the manufactured goods less competitive in the export marketplace compared to those manufactured by economies with lower valuation currencies, because they are relatively more expensive.
    Synonyms:
    Dutch curse
  2. (US, dated) Hollanditis.
  3. Dutch elm disease.

Synonyms of Dutch disease

Origin of Dutch disease

Coined by The Economist magazine in 1977, to describe the situation in the Netherlands where a natural resources find of a large natural gas field caused the Dutch guilder to rise in valuation, depressing exports and causing the manufacturing sector to decline, that occurred after 1959.

Questions about Dutch disease

What does Dutch disease mean?
Dutch disease means an increase in the value derived from the natural-resources sector of the economy, leading to a rise in the valuation of the currency increasingly based on the natural-resources sector, and thus causing a deterioration in the manufacturing sector by making the manufactured goods less competitive in the export marketplace compared to those manufactured by economies with lower valuation currencies, because they are relatively more expensive.
What part of speech is Dutch disease?
Dutch disease is a noun.

Words near Dutch disease in the dictionary

  1. Dutch courage
  2. Dutch crunch
  3. Dutch curse
  4. dutch date
  5. dutch dates
  6. Dutch disease
  7. Dutch doll
  8. Dutch dolls
  9. Dutch donut
  10. Dutch donuts
  11. Dutch door

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Dutch disease (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Dutch disease.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dutch_disease. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.