Effect of drought stress and N rate on growth and physiological characters of flue-cured tobacco was studied using pot-cultured ‘Jiyan 9’ at 5 levels of N application.The results showed that agronomic characters of treatment E（0.6 g/kg） were better than other treatments under drought stress.Plants of treatment D（0.45g/kg） were the best under normal water conditions.Growth of tobacco plants was decreased when the N rate go up to 0.6g/kg.As the drought continued,net photosynthetic rate,stomatal conductance,transpiration rate and chlorophyll content decreased step by step,but proline content increased step by step.The results showed that photosynthesis and stress indexes of flue-cured tobacco were very sensitive to drought stress.Comparing of all N application treatments showed that high nitrogen was propitious for flue-cured tobacco to tolerate drought stress by the modulation of physiological process and to decrease the loss of drought.