Among environmental stresses, drought is the main limiting factor of crop yield. The use of nanomaterials has been considered a strategy to enhance the drought tolerance of plants. To evaluate the beneficial effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs; 0 (T0), 50 (T50), and 100 (T100) mg l−1) and deficit irrigation (70 as control (I70), 105 (I105), and 140 (I140) mm evaporation from Class A evaporation pan) on drought tolerance of sweet corn cv. chase, an open field experiment was performed in 2018–2019. The results showed that deficit irrigation decreased the maximum efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm), but T50 improved Fv/Fm. 50 mg l−1 TiO2-NPs enhanced leaf SOD, APX, and CAT antioxidant activities by 17%, 10%, and 24%, respectively, over the control. I140T50 increased leaf proline content 8% and 17% over I140T0 and I140T100, respectively. Grain number per ear with the highest correlation with grain yield (r = 0.97) was the most determining grain yield component. The greatest grain yield was obtained from I0T50 and I105T50 (760 and 809 g m−2, respectively). Therefore, I105, due to less water consumption, and T50 may be considered to produce sweet corn with a desired performance under water-limited conditions.

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