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
American
[kuh-roo]
/ kəˈru /
Or
Karroo
noun
-
karoos
plural
-
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.
Karoo
British
/ kəˈruː /
noun
-
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
adjective
karoo
Scientific
/ kə-ro̅o̅′ /
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But around 182 million years ago, massive volcanic eruptions spread lava across much of the inland Karoo Basin, where many dinosaurs once lived.
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 stretches of the Karoo are past, and breakfast at De Aar is in sight.
From The Siege of Mafeking (1900) by J. Angus Hamilton
The smell of the karoo bush is sweeter than attar, and the bog-myrtle and mimosa, where they shelter a house or fringe a river, have a look of Arcady.
From The Judgment House by Gilbert Parker
Plenty of nice, sandy karoo where all the sand-storms come from!
From The Top of the World by Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell
Adding to their spectral appearance were the long, withered grass-tufts and karoo bushes, white as if coated with hoar frost.
From The Vee-Boers A Tale of Adventure in Southern Africa by Mayne Reid
Rains had covered the karoo with a heavy coat of green that hid the red earth everywhere.
From The Story of an African Farm, a novel by Olive Schreiner
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 Mayne Reid
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
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.
