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Glite Dictionary
head blight

head blight

8.9
A disease from a fungus that attacks wheat or barley heads and reduces the crop
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : muerte del cogollo
  • Farmers are concerned about head blight damaging this year's wheat harvest.

Examples

  • The wet spring created ideal conditions for head blight to spread among the cereal crops.

  • Proper crop rotation can help prevent head blight in barley fields.

  • Farmers are concerned about head blight this season.

  • The head blight affected many fields last year.

  • Farmers are concerned that head blight may significantly reduce their wheat yield this season.

  • To protect their crops, farmers are implementing strategies to combat head blight in their fields.

  • The occurrence of head blight in cereal crops can lead to serious economic losses for farmers.

Surface Forms

head blight singular
head blights plural

Morphology

head + blight

The term is compositional and literal: 'blight' denotes a plant disease and 'head' specifies the part of the plant affected (the grain/flowering head), so the meaning — a disease affecting crop heads — is directly derivable from its constituents. This locative modifier pattern is common across languages and follows regular English compounding, so a B1 learner who knows both words should understand it.

Etymology

The term head blight shows a simple image: the head, the top part of cereal plants where the grain grows, is attacked by a blight and turns brown and rotten. So it means a plant illness that damages the crop heads and reduces the 'harvest'.