SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
blight
noun
A damaging influence or a condition of serious decline and deterioration.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Damaging decline or influence
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topDecay describes a condition; scourge identifies a damaging cause. The plant-disease sense is separate.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See blight in use
The report describes boarded-up storefronts as a sign of urban blight.
A blight of neglect damaged the shared courtyard of an island research station in an invented novella, leaving broken benches and abandoned materials where residents once gathered.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license