What does Famine mean?

Definitions for Famine
ˈfæm ɪnfamine

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Famine.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. dearth, famine, shortagenoun

    an acute insufficiency

  2. faminenoun

    a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death

Wiktionary

  1. faminenoun

    extreme shortage of food in a region

  2. faminenoun

    a period of extreme shortage of food in a region

  3. faminenoun

    During times of famine

  4. Etymology: From famine.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Faminenoun

    Scarcity of food; dearth; distress for want of victuals.

    Etymology: famine, French; fames, Latin.

    Our castle’s strength
    Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie,
    ’Till famine and the ague eat them up. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

    Famines have not been of late observed, partly because of the industry of mankind, partly by those supplies that come by sea to countries in want, but principally by the goodness of God. Matthew Hale, Origin of Mankind.

    This city never felt a siege before,
    But from the lake receiv’d its daily store;
    Which now shut up, and millions crowded here,
    Famine will soon in multitudes appear. John Dryden, Indian Emp.

Wikipedia

  1. Famine

    A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. In the 19th and 20th century, generally characterized Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe, in terms of having suffered most number of deaths from famine. The numbers dying from famine began to fall sharply from the 2000s. Since 2010, Africa has been the most affected continent of famine in the world.

ChatGPT

  1. famine

    Famine is a severe and prolonged shortage of food in a particular region or country, typically resulting in widespread hunger, malnutrition, and death. It often occurs due to factors such as war, drought, economic collapse, or crop failure.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Faminenoun

    general scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution

  2. Etymology: [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. want, need, Skr. hni loss, lack, h to leave.]

Wikidata

  1. Famine

    A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, population unbalance, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Nearly every continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. Some countries, particularly in sub-Sahara Africa, continue to have extreme cases of famine. The famine relief model increasingly used by aid groups calls for giving cash or cash vouchers to the hungry to pay local farmers instead of buying food from donor countries, as is often required by law, as it wastes money on transport costs, but more importantly, it perpetuates the cycle of dependency on foreign imports rather than helping to create real local stability through agricultural abundance. Emergency measures in relieving famine include providing high calorie ready-to-use therapeutic food, through fortified sachets of peanut-based paste such as Plumpy'nut that are given primarily to children. Long-term measures include investment in modern agriculture techniques, such as fertilizers and irrigation, which largely eradicated hunger in the developed world. World Bank strictures restrict government subsidies for farmers, and increasing use of fertilizers is opposed by some environmental groups because of its unintended consequences: adverse effects on water supplies and habitat.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Famine

    fam′in, n. general scarcity of food: extreme scarcity of anything, as in 'famine prices,' &c.: hunger: starvation. [Fr., through an unrecorded Low L. famina, from L. fames, hunger.]

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of Famine in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of Famine in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of Famine in a Sentence

  1. Patricia Arquette:

    I can't tell you what this means to me, i'm a fourth-generation actor. My family has been committed to acting for over a century, through feast or famine.

  2. Hany El-Banna:

    We cannot wait like we did in 2011 when we acted too late, we need to deal with this today - if we don't this drought will turn into a famine.

  3. United States:

    The threat of famine is a very real threat and risks doubling the numbers of people in Yemen who are at risk of dying of hunger or famine. That's the urgent factor here.

  4. Adham Musallam:

    This means that we must not wait until the situation reaches famine but must act now to provide humanitarian aid directly.

  5. Andrei Lankov:

    Agriculture is much less state-run and much more private than it used to be, and the farmers who work for themselves work better and with greater efficiency, north Korea is highly unlikely to experience another famine even remotely similar to what happened in the late nineties.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

Famine#10000#21541#100000

Translations for Famine

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"Famine." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Famine>.

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    the act of making a noisy disturbance
    A rumpus
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