Meaning & use
blight
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountabletechnical
A disease of plants that makes leaves and crops turn brown, wither and die.
Grammar: Often uncountable: crops hit by blight; a countable use names a type: potato blight.
Patterns
- blight on something
- blight of something
Potato blight destroyed much of the harvest in the 1840s.
A fungal blight has spread through the tomato plants.
The gardener cut away the blighted leaves to stop the disease.
nounusually singularfigurative
Something that harms or spoils a place or a person's life and is hard to get rid of.
Grammar: Usually used with a: a blight on the community; the blight of poverty.
Patterns
- a blight on something
- the blight of something
Abandoned factories are a blight on the neighborhood.
The blight of unemployment affected families for generations.
Litter is a blight on the otherwise lovely beach.
verbtransitive
To damage or ruin something, especially so that it does not develop well.
Grammar: Takes an object: injury blighted his career.
Patterns
- blight something
- be blighted by something
Constant injuries blighted her career as a runner.
Poor housing has blighted the area for decades.
The late frost blighted the apple blossoms.
Word forms
| plural | blights |
|---|---|
| third person singular | blights |
| past tense | blighted |
| past participle | blighted |
| -ing form | blighting |
Common combinations
- potato blight
- Potato blight caused a famine in Ireland.
- urban blight
- The city set aside money to tackle urban blight.
- a blight on the landscape
- Critics called the power station a blight on the landscape.
- blighted by something
- The town was blighted by traffic and noise.
- blight the lives of
- Illness can blight the lives of whole families.
Synonyms and how they differ
- curse
- Curse suggests a harm that seems to come from fate, while blight describes a spreading, damaging condition.
- scourge
- Scourge is stronger, suggesting a cause of great suffering such as disease or war.
- plague
- Plague suggests a large, widespread infestation or trouble rather than a slow decay.
- ruin
- Ruin is the plain word for destroying something, but blight implies a gradual, spreading damage.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: blight or plight?
blight vs plight
Plight means a difficult situation someone is in, while blight is the disease or harmful thing that causes damage.
Practice
Which phrase best completes the sentence? The empty, boarded-up shops had become a ___ on the town center.
Choose one answer.
A blight on something is a thing that spoils it. Bloom and benefit are positive, so they would not fit abandoned shops.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “blight”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.