Karoo

American  

[kuh-roo] / kəˈru /

Or Karroo

noun

plural

karoos

1. a vast plateau in the Republic of South Africa, in Cape of Good Hope province. 100,000 square miles (260,000 square kilometers); 3000–4000 feet (900–1200 meters) above sea level.

2. (lowercase) an arid South African tableland with red clay soil.

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Karoo British  

/ kəˈruː /

noun

1. any of several high arid plateaus in South Africa, esp the Central Karoo and the Little Karoo. The highveld, north of the Central Karoo, is sometimes called the Northern Karoo

2. a period or rock system in Southern Africa equivalent to the period or system extending from the Upper Carboniferous to the Lower Jurassic: divided into Lower and Upper Karoo

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adjective

1. of, denoting, or formed in the Karoo period

karoo Scientific  

/ kə-ro̅o̅′ /

1. A semiarid plateau. The most well-known karoos cover nearly 400,000 sq km (156,000 sq mi) of southern Africa. Karoos are terrace shaped and characterized by low scrub vegetation.

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Etymology

Origin of Karoo

First recorded in 1785–90; from Afrikaans kar(r)oo, from Khoikhoi; compare Xhaeruh, Phaeruh placename recorded in 1689, Nama garo “parched, dry, arid,” !garo-b “desolate waste”

Example Sentences

The Karoo Basin, once contiguous with Antarctica—and later underwater and now semi-arid—was a verdant home for what the show says were six basic groups of therapsids.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026

Many of the world's succulent species are only found in the Succulent Karoo desert, which spans South Africa and Namibia.

From BBC • Dec. 25, 2024

Drawing parallels across Karoo sites, the study links the Maniamba Basin's organic matter properties with those found in other Karoo sites stretching from Mozambique to Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.

From Science Daily • May 7, 2024

These will form a collection of 197 antennas, extending over about 150 kilometres in South Africa’s dry Karoo region.

From Scientific American • Dec. 6, 2022

It is true that this was Richard Saltire's business on the farm—to rid the land of that bane and pest of the Karoo, the prickly-pear cactus.

From Blue Aloes Stories of South Africa by Stockley, Cynthia