Sahara
Americannoun
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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).
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any arid waste.
noun
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At approximately 3.5 million square miles, it is the world's largest desert.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of Sahara
From Arabic ṣaḥra (plural ṣaḥārā ) “desert”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Over the last week, dust and sand whipped up by winds in the Sahara have been transported thousands of miles from Africa.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 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
Huss said the "very bad state of the glaciers at the moment" was down to a "combination of bad circumstances", including less snowfall, and the arrival of dust from the Sahara Desert in March.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
Instead, we find two sets of African crops whose wild ancestors occur just south of the Sahara, and which are adapted to summer rains and less seasonal variation in day length.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
