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The effects of water deficit on maize growth and physiological activities have been extensively studied. However, there are few studies about how various nitrogen (N) fertilizer types alleviate the impact of water stress on maize yield. A two-year field experiment was conducted to explore the effects of N type on maize growth, physiological characteristics and gain yield under various water-stressed conditions in 2019 and 2020. This experiment included three irrigation levels of W1 (60% ET c , ET c is crop evapotranspiration), W2 (80% ET c) and W3 (100% ET c), and three N fertilizer types of urea (U), slow-release nitrogen fertilizer (SRF) and blending U and SRF (UNS). The results showed that W1 and W2 significantly reduced maize leaf area index and leaf N content, which declined maize net photosynthetic rate (P n), transpiration rate (T r) and chlorophyll fluorescence, inhibited chlorophyll synthesis and thus reduced maize yield. W3 not only increased maize growth, P n and T r , but also enhanced the correlation between P n , chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and leaf area index/leaf N content. The application of UNS alleviated the grain yield reduction associated with water stress. Under W1 (W2), the grain yield in UNS were 3.6–22.1% (10.4–25.0%) and 4.4–24.2% (5.3–15.4%) greater than that in U and SRF, respectively. Although W3SRF obtained the highest yield grain among all the treatments, no significant difference was found between W3UNS and W3SRF. Under the same irrigation amount, UNS increased the water productivity compared with U. In conclusion, UNS could stabilize grain yield by regulating maize leaf functional traits to cope with future climate change and ensure regional food security. • LAI and leaf N content can evaluate the response of leaf development process to water deficit. • W3 increased the correlation coefficients between leaf function index and LAI/leaf N content. • UNS alleviated the negative effects of water deficit on leaf functional index of maize. • UNS could stabilize grain yield by regulating maize leaf functional traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]