Jump To:

• Karoo
  Karoo

  noun

  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.
• karoo
  karoo

  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.

Karoo

American  

[kuh-roo] / kəˈru /

Or Karroo

noun

• karoos
  plural

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.

---

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

---

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.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• karoos
  plural

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

See Examples For:

Karoo karoo karoos

Some dinosaurs may have briefly survived the initial eruptions, but they were likely among the last animals to live in the Karoo Basin at that time.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2026

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

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

The Karoo, he said, is a tourist destination in South Africa.

From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2022

“That’s enough, Mynheer Jan. We mustn’t attempt to go back over the Karoo; it would be our ruin, as you say.”

From The Vee-Boers A Tale of Adventure in Southern Africa by Mayne Reid

We wish our father hadn't brought us to town, and we were out on the karoo.

From The Story of an African Farm, a novel by Olive Schreiner

Plenty of nice, sandy karoo where all the sand-storms come from!

From The Top of the World by Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell

Every day the karoo shows us a new wonder sleeping in its teeming bosom.

From The Story of an African Farm, a novel by Olive Schreiner

The plain was a weary flat of loose red sand, sparsely covered by dry karoo bushes, that cracked beneath the tread like tinder, and showed the red earth everywhere.

From The Story of an African Farm, a novel by Olive Schreiner

"I have it," said Good, "we must dig a hole, get in it, and cover ourselves with the karoo bushes."

From King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard

There are hunters residing upon the desert karoos, who hunt the ostrich as a profession.

From The Young Yagers A Narrative of Hunting Adventures in Southern Africa by Mayne Reid

Far different are the feelings inspired by the sight of this beautiful tree amid the karoos of Southern Africa.

From The Young Yagers A Narrative of Hunting Adventures in Southern Africa by Mayne Reid

Not on the blood-stained karoos of Africa, not upon the forest-plains of the Amazon, not by the icy shores of the Arctic Sea, certainly not upon the prairies of North America.

From The War Trail The Hunt of the Wild Horse by Mayne Reid