Great Plains

American  

noun

1. a semiarid region E of the Rocky Mountains, in the U.S. and Canada.

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Great Plains British  

plural noun

1. a vast region of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, extending from the lowlands of the Mackenzie River (Canada), south to the Big Bend of the Rio Grande

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Great Plains Cultural  

1. Grassland prairie region of North America, extending from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, in Canada, south through the west-central United States into Texas.

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In the 1930s, areas of the Great Plains were known collectively as the Dust Bowl. Poor agricultural practices led to depletion of topsoil, which was blown away in huge dust storms. The area was called the Great American Desert well into the nineteenth century.

Now characterized by huge ranches and farms, the Great Plains were long inhabited by Native Americans.

Example Sentences

For thousands of years, bison roamed the Great Plains of North America and were an essential resource for Indigenous hunters.

From Science Daily • Jun. 11, 2026

They found no gold but became the first Europeans to explore the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026

“It extends from Southern California all the way to the Great Plains and from Canada to Mexico,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 2026

The severe winter weather will bring widespread travel disruptions, including heavy snow in the Northeast, and frigid temperatures and gusty winds in the southern Great Plains and elsewhere, the National Weather Service said.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 23, 2026

Those regions of the Americas without food production included all of northern North America and southern South America, the Canadian Great Plains, and all of western North America except for small areas of the U.S.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond