saguaro

American  

[suh-gwahr-oh, -wahr-oh] / səˈgwɑr oʊ, -ˈwɑr oʊ /

noun

saguaros plural

1. a tall, horizontally branched cactus, Carnegiea (orCereus ) gigantea, of Arizona and neighboring regions, yielding a useful wood and bearing an edible fruit: still locally common, though some populations have been reduced.

---

saguaro British  

/ səˈwɑː-, səˈɡwɑːrəʊ, səˈwɑːrəʊ /

noun

1. a giant cactus, Carnegiea gigantea, of desert regions of Arizona, S California, and Mexico, having white nocturnal flowers and edible red pulpy fruits

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• saguaros
  plural

Etymology

Origin of saguaro

1855–60, < Mexican Spanish saguaro, sahuaro, said to be < Opata (now extinct Uto-Aztecan language of Sonora)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

saguaro saguaros

The road along the U.S. side of the 30-foot border wall here rises and falls like waves in a sea, unspooling past thicket, saguaro and washes left dry with no rain.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024

Arizona's saguaro cacti, a symbol of the U.S.

From Reuters ● Jul. 27, 2023

The former mining towns of Globe and Miami are nearby, burrowed into mountains studded with saguaro cactus.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 29, 2023

They say a growing list of living symbols of longevity, strength, and perseverance — desert tortoises, saguaro cactuses, bristlecone pines, cottonwood forests, giant sequoias, chinook salmon, Joshua trees — may be at an evolutionary crossroads.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 19, 2023

“I’d never seen a saguaro cactus until I moved here,” I told them, thinking of the great saguaro at the top of my hill.

From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling

Dozens of cars, some with their trunks opened to display camera equipment, were parked in the shadows of 30-foot saguaros.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026

Huachuca base sat another former shipping container, this one occupied by a drone pilot and a camera operator, who pivoted the drone’s camera to scan 9 square miles of shrubs and saguaros for the migrants.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2025

“So part of our thinking is that there are still saguaros today that were compromised from what they went through in 2020. And that this could be sending them over the edge.”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 2, 2023

The cultural shift began years ago in Phoenix, and many residents now take pride in their saguaros and palo verde trees, and post snapshots of bobcats and roadrunners in their yards.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 20, 2023

In the gathering dusk, the saguaros flung shadows of giants across the pebbled earth.

From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli