savanna

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a tropical or subtropical grassland with scattered trees and an open canopy, typically shaped by seasonal rainfall, fire, and grazing

   Antelope moved across the savanna between widely spaced acacia trees.

Borrowed through Spanish sabana from Taino zabana, a word for an open grassy plain. English has used both savanna and savannah since the colonial period; the ecological sense now emphasizes a grass-dominated biome with a discontinuous tree canopy.

Topics