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# famine

«famine» in Mova's school dictionary: **A time when a large number of people in a place do not…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a famine, famines; famine — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

A time when a large number of people in a place do not have enough food, often for months, and many may become ill or die. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In history lessons pupils learn about famines such as the Great Famine in Ireland, caused when the potato crop failed; in geography famine follows drought, war or crop failure; charities send help. Phrases: «famine relief», «suffer from famine», «a time of famine».

### examples

- The potato famine in Ireland forced many people to leave. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#x1)
- Drought led to famine in the region. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#x2)
- Charities sent food during the famine. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#x3)
- People ate grass in the worst days of the famine. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#x4)
- War can cause famine when farmers cannot plant crops. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#x5)
- The story is about a family that survived a famine. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#x6)
- A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/#x7)

### note

Countable and uncountable. Not the same as «hunger» (the feeling of wanting food) — a famine is a huge, long food shortage for a whole area. Opposite in feeling: feast, plenty.

### In the corpora

- [People believed Heaven gave a good ruler the right to rule, and took it away when floods, famine and rebellion came.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/3/)
- [Mao's Great Leap Forward caused a terrible famine, and his Cultural Revolution closed schools and hurt millions.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/58-china-1911-1949-and-mao/8/)
- [Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows and seven thin cows; Joseph explained this meant seven years of plenty, then seven of famine.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/5-joseph-and-his-brothers/12/)
- [Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of storing grain, and he saved Egypt and many nations from famine.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/5-joseph-and-his-brothers/13/)
- [And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.733/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «famine» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/famine/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.