pampas

American  

[pam-puhz, pam-puhs, pahm-pahs] / ˈpæm pəz, ˈpæm pəs, ˈpɑm pɑs /

plural noun

• pampa
  singular

1. the vast grassy plains of southern South America, especially in Argentina.

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pampas British  

/ pæmˈpiːən, ˈpæmpɪən, ˈpæmpəz /

noun

1. (functioning as singular or more often plural)

   1. the extensive grassy plains of temperate South America, esp in Argentina

   2. ( as modifier )

      pampas dwellers

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Other Word Forms

• pampean
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of pampas

First recorded in 1695–1705; from Latin American Spanish, plural of pampa, from Quechua: “flat, unbounded plain”

Explanation

If you travel to Argentina, you may have a chance to visit the pampas, the fertile lowlands that cover part of South America. This noun is of American Spanish origin and ultimately from Quechua in the central Andes mountains in South America. Argentina is the country that is home to more pampas (treeless, grassy plains) than any other. The pampas may seem rather empty without the occasional gaucho, a cowboy of the pampas, and yet another word of South American Spanish origin.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pampas pampa

Horticultural invasives, such as butterfly bush, English ivy, pampas grass and many other garden favorites that have escaped cultivation, are of increasing concern.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2024

On the pampas they may have been equally valued for their relatively fatty meat.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 7, 2023

Years ago, when he read Bruce Chatwin’s “In Patagonia,” he retraced the writer’s 168-mile trek across the pampas of South America to the Cave of the Giant Sloth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2023

For her installation, she had conjured up large-scale, eye-popping works with dried lotus leaves, dyed pampas grass and anthuriums radiant with iridescent paint.

From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2022

In the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, the voyaging Charles Darwin discovered hundreds of square miles strangled by feral artichoke.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

All were European technologies or trade goods adapted by locals on the Patagonian pampa.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 7, 2023

The tail zigged and zagged through the wet pampa.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 22, 2013

But most Yankees of the U.S. know less about Latin America's most bustling country, its 13,518,239 people and the riches of its fabulously fertile "humid pampa" than they know about Novosibirsk.

From Time Magazine Archive

For Russia had sent a trade delegation to Buenos Aires presumably to offer Soviet tractors, trucks and combines for wool, hides, and blooded pampa bulls to build up Russia's war-depleted herds.

From Time Magazine Archive

For the roof, a thatch of the long pampa grass is also common.

From The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn A Study of Life in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia by John R. Spears

Related Words

• pasture
• plain
• prairie
• savanna
• steppe