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Glite Dictionary
wheat rust

wheat rust

1 5.3
A disease caused by a fungus that makes reddish or brown spots on wheat leaves and stems and reduces harvest
  • noun
  • /wiːt rʌst/
  • Specialized
: roya del trigo
  • The rapid spread of wheat rust can significantly reduce the yield of wheat fields.

Examples

  • Experts warn that wheat rust outbreaks can lead to severe losses in wheat production.

  • But it there are, there are new strains of, for example, wheat rust that that if they migrate here to the US could literally destroy our wheat harvest.

  • Farmers are concerned about the impact of wheat rust on their crops this season.

Synonyms

rust
vswheat rust
  • Specialized
1 6.9

A plant disease caused by a fungus that makes reddish-brown spots on leaves and stems

affects only one major cereal crop instead of many plant species

Surface Forms

wheat rust singular
wheat rusts plural

Morphology

wheat + rust

The meaning is directly compositional: 'rust' (a fungal disease) applied to 'wheat' indicates the fungal disease that affects wheat. This straightforward noun+noun modifier pattern is cross-linguistically common and a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Wheat rust comes from the way the problem looks: the wheat shows reddish-brown spots on leaves and stems that look like metal rust. So wheat rust means a 'disease' that damages the crop and can reduce the harvest.