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

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

From BBC

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

So Michael builds a handcart for her to travel in - and they set off from Cape Town through the Karoo semi-desert.

From BBC

"Partly so that we could see these beautiful puppets that Adrian carved up on a big screen, and partly so that we would understand the landscape of this journey and the beautiful loneliness of the Karoo in South Africa," Foot says.

From BBC

The team discovered that various species of gorgonopsian occupied the top predator niche in what is now Karoo Basin in South Africa throughout the approximately million years of Permian extinction.

From New York Times