prairie

American  

[prair-ee] / ˈprɛər i /

noun

1. an extensive, level or slightly undulating, mostly treeless tract of land in the Mississippi valley, characterized by a highly fertile soil and originally covered with coarse grasses, and merging into drier plateaus in the west.

2. a tract of grassland; meadow.

3. (in Florida) a low, sandy tract of grassland often covered with water.

4. Southern U.S. wet grassland; marsh.

5. (initial capital letter) a steam locomotive having a two-wheeled front truck, six driving wheels, and a two-wheeled rear truck.

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prairie British  

/ ˈprɛərɪ /

noun

1. (often plural) a treeless grassy plain of the central US and S Canada Compare pampas steppe savanna

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prairie Scientific  

/ prâr′ē /

1. An extensive area of flat or rolling grassland, especially the large plain of central North America.

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Other Word Forms

• prairielike adjective

Etymology

Origin of prairie

1675–85; < French: meadow < Vulgar Latin *prātāria, equivalent to Latin prāt ( um ) meadow + -āria, feminine of -ārius -ary

Explanation

A prairie is a plain of grassy land without many trees. If you're raising cattle, find some prairie land to let them roam around on. Prairie means grassland, and comes from the French word for "meadow." While we might describe a single meadow, we usually use prairie to describe a type of countryside. In the United States, the natural state of the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains is prairie, which is why there's so much farming there.

Example Sentences

These days, new signs sit in the prairie grass: “SAY NO TO THE PRISON! Keep the country, country.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026

Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT lit this prairie fire in November 2022, the semiconductor ETF is up around 190%.

From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026

One of Canada's main objectives during this trip is to ease Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola that have hurt farmers in the country's prairie provinces.

From BBC • Jan. 13, 2026

The roof needed to be replaced to withstand heavy snow, hard rain and the golf-ball-sized hail of prairie thunderstorms.

From Salon • Dec. 18, 2025

She was accustomed to the chorus of meadowlarks and sandpipers and prairie chickens, now overlaid with the pock-pocking of drills pounding the earth.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Related Words

• meadow
• pasture
• plain
• savanna
• steppe