puna

American  

[poo-nah] / ˈpu nɑ /

noun

1. a high, cold, arid plateau, as in the Peruvian Andes.

2. Pathology. altitude sickness.

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puna British  

/ ˈpuna /

noun

1. a high cold dry plateau, esp in the Andes

2. another name for mountain sickness

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Etymology

Origin of puna

First recorded in 1605–15; from South American Spanish, from Quechua púna

Example Sentences

Step 1: Deep wells or puna are cleaned of dirt and debris so the sea water that enters them through underground channels is clean and conducive to salt making.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 3, 2024

On the puna, the more-than-two-mile-high sierra, the saffron moss took a little spring rain and greened.

From Time Magazine Archive

At a great altitude in the Andes the people had shortness of breath which they called "puna," and they ate onions to correct it.

From Under the Maples by Burroughs, John

We did not suffer from puna, or mountain sickness, which Bishop Sprat, of Rochester, mentions in 1650, and which Mr. Darwin—alas that we must write the late!—cured by botanising.

From To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Volume I by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

The short breathing from the rarefied atmosphere is called by the Chilenos "puna;" and they have most ridiculous notions concerning its origin.

From The Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin, Charles