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.
(lowercase) an arid South African tableland with red clay soil.
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
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
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”
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
A thunderstorm passes over a sunflower which, against the odds, has managed to survive on a rubbish dump in the semi-arid Karoo region of South Africa.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2022
The train was slowly thrusting itself forward as, with much panting and purring and some screaming, it cut the borders of the Great Karoo.
From The Siege of Mafeking (1900) by Hamilton, J. Angus
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 Schreiner, Olive
Not strange, then, their travelling by night, as by day; for it was life or death to them to get across the karoo.
From The Vee-Boers A Tale of Adventure in Southern Africa by Reid, Mayne
"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 Haggard, Henry Rider
For they were elephants—a troop on the march—nigh threescore in number, their line extending for hundreds and hundreds of yards across the karoo.
From The Vee-Boers A Tale of Adventure in Southern Africa by Reid, Mayne
The business now supports a clerk—a young Englishman of good education but indifferent lungs, and who was ordered a karoo climate by the doctors.
From Between Sun and Sand A Tale of an African Desert by Scully, W. C. (William Charles)
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 Reid, Mayne
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 Reid, Mayne
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 Reid, Mayne
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
