Word.ws English Dictionary

famine

Syllables: fam·ine/ˈfæm.ɪn/US/ˈfæm.ən/

famine noun: extreme shortage of food in a region.

Noun

famine (countable and uncountable, plural famines)

  1. (uncountable) Extreme shortage of food in a region.
    • It was reserved for Christians to torture bread, the staff of life, bread for which children in whole districts wail, bread, the gift of pasture to the poor, bread, for want of which thousands of our fellow beings annually perish by famine; it was reserved for Christians to torture the material of...1831 July 15, “Of the Blood”, in Western Journal of Health, volume 4, number 1, L. B. Lincoln, page 38
    • Dr. Bhatia pointed out that famine had occurred in all ages and in all societies where means of communication and transport were not developed.1971, Central Institute of Research & Training in Public Cooperation
  2. (countable) A period of extreme shortage of food in a region.
    • The root causes of the current famine are known: poverty, low health standards....1986, United States Congress, House Select Committee on Hunger, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Famine and Recovery in Africa
  3. (dated) Starvation or malnutrition.
    • His own flesh, however, which he lost by famine, shall be restored to him by Him who can recover even what has evaporated.1871 (orig. 426), Augustine, The City of God, transl. Marcus Dods
  4. Severe shortage or lack of something.
    • the Lancashire Cotton Famine

Proper noun capitalized: Famine

Famine

  1. The personification of famine, often depicted riding a black horse.
    Synonyms:
    the black rider

famine meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

famine in Hindi

extreme shortage of food in a region
अकाल akāl
a period of extreme shortage of food in a region
अकाल akāl

famine in Tamil

extreme shortage of food in a region
பஞ்சம் pañcam

famine in Urdu

extreme shortage of food in a region
اکال akāl

famine in Bengali

famine
দুর্ভিক্ষ durbhikkho
More languagesFewer languages
famine in Telugu
కాటకము kāṭakamu, కరువు karuvu, క్షామము kṣāmamu, కరవు karavu
famine in Malayalam
പട്ടിണി paṭṭiṇi
famine in Kannada
ಕಗ್ಗಾರು kaggāru
famine in Punjabi
ਅਕਾਲ
famine in Gujarati
દુષ્કાળ duṣkāḷ
famine in Odia
ଦୁର୍ଭିକ୍ଷ, ଦୁର୍ଭିକ୍ଷା
famine in Sanskrit
दुर्भिक्ष durbhikṣa
famine in Nepali
अनिकाल
famine in Tagalog
taggutom
famine in Arabic
مَجَاعَة majāʕa
famine in Persian
قحطی qahti, گرسنگی gorosnegi
famine in Thai
ทุพภิกขภัย túp-pík-kà-pai, ข้าวยากหมากแพง kâao yâak màak paeng
famine in Vietnamese
nạn đói
famine in Myanmar
အငတ်ဘေး a.ngatbhe:, ဒုဗ္ဘိက္ခန္တရကပ် dubbhikhkanta.ra.kap
Kashmiri
درٛاگ drāg

Examples of famine in a sentence

  • All the news of murder and famine is weighing me down.
  • Anglo-Indian rule brought railroads, but also some of the worst famines in history.
  • As regards “famines and floods,” these have long been considered “Acts of God.”

All 34 example sentences with famine

Synonyms of famine

  • the black rider

Forms of famine

pluralfamines

Plural of famine: famines

Origin of famine

Borrowed from Middle French famine, itself from the root of Latin fames.

Words formed from famine

Phrases with famine

Words that rhyme with famine

Questions about famine

What does famine mean?
Famine means extreme shortage of food in a region.
What is famine in Hindi?
Famine in Hindi is अकाल (akāl). See Famine meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is famine?
Famine can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce famine?
Famine is pronounced /ˈfæm.ɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of famine?
The plural of famine is famines.

Words near famine in the dictionary

  1. familymaxxes
  2. familymaxxing
  3. familymoon
  4. familymoons
  5. familywise
  6. famine
  7. famine bread
  8. famine breads
  9. famine fever
  10. famine food
  11. famine foods

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: famine (page history and authors); Famine (page history and authors); দুর্ভিক্ষ (Bengali) (page history and authors); కరవు (Telugu) (page history and authors); ಕಗ್ಗಾರು (Kannada) (page history and authors); famine (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); famine (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); दुर्भिक्ष (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); famine (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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