Sahara

American  

[suh-har-uh, -hair-uh, -hahr-uh] / səˈhær ə, -ˈhɛər ə, -ˈhɑr ə /

noun

1. a desert in northern Africa, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Nile valley. About 3,500,000 square miles (9,065,000 square kilometers).

2. any arid waste.

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Sahara British  

/ səˈhɑːrə /

noun

1. a desert in N Africa, extending from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and from the Mediterranean to central Mali, Niger, Chad, and the Sudan: the largest desert in the world, occupying over a quarter of Africa; rises to over 3300 m (11 000 ft) in the central mountain system of the Ahaggar and Tibesti massifs; large reserves of iron ore, oil, and natural gas. Area: 9 100 000 sq km (3 500 000 sq miles). Average annual rainfall: less than 254 mm (10 in.). Highest recorded temperature: 58°C (136.4°F)

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Sahara Cultural  

1. Desert in northern Africa.

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Discover More

At approximately 3.5 million square miles, it is the world's largest desert.

Other Word Forms

• Saharan
  adjective
• Saharian
  adjective
• trans-Sahara
  adjective
• trans-Saharan
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Sahara

From Arabic ṣaḥra (plural ṣaḥārā ) “desert”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Sahara

Remittances flowed into remote villages where the most reliable way to reinvest the windfall was to send another family member across the Sahara.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

This happened in 2021, after Spain allowed a pro-independence leader from Western Sahara to get treatment in a Spanish hospital.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Professor Abdelmadjid Chehma at the University of Ghardaia in Algeria, who has conducted experimental works on camels in the Sahara Desert, has a similar conclusion.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

Whether you were in France, the Sahara Desert or Chile, the sky "would no longer be clear, resembling instead the sky seen in the suburbs of a city," he warned.

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

We knew it had no atmosphere and we knew its surface could be either colder than Siberia in January or hotter than the Sahara Desert in August.

From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins

Related Words

• wilderness