Sahara
[suh-har-uh, -hair-uh, -hahr-uh]
- a desert in N Africa, extending from the Atlantic to the Nile valley. About 3,500,000 sq. mi. (9,065,000 sq. km).
- any arid waste.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sahara
Contemporary Examples
It had taken the camels and their black-turbaned Berber herders four long days to walk from the Sahara.
Accounts emerge from the harrowing Islamist attack on an oil field in the Sahara Desert.
The American Interest reports that vast aquifers of water have been found beneath the Sahara desert.
He was happy when the Khawams opened a series of restaurants of their own, all called Sahara.
Jill Kelley’s Campaign to Befriend Petraeus, Allen, and Other Top BrassMichael Daly
November 14, 2012
On another episode of Man vs. Wild, Grylls finds himself the guest of honor after the killing of a goat in the Sahara.
Historical Examples
But she was like one who traversed a desert under the sea—a vast submerged Sahara.
The ManxmanHall Caine
The ship, out there in the poisonous Sahara, was living proof of their success.
It's All YoursSam Merwin
He said to me once, “The oneness of two people could make a home in Sahara.”
The Love Affairs of an Old MaidLilian Bell
That rains so called are only of water colored by sand from the Sahara Desert.
The Book of the DamnedCharles Fort
With sand from the Sahara, sand from a barrel of sugar, or dust of your great-great-grandfather.
The Book of the DamnedCharles Fort
Sahara
- 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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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for sahara
Sahara
1610s, from Arabic çahra "desert" (plural çahara), according to Klein, noun use of fem. of the adjective asharu "yellowish red." Related: Saharan.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Sahara
Desert in northern Africa.
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Note
At approximately 3.5 million square miles, it is the world's largest desert.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.