savanna

American  

[suh-van-uh] / səˈvæn ə /

Or savannah

noun

savannas plural

1. a plain characterized by coarse grasses and scattered tree growth, especially on the margins of the tropics where the rainfall is seasonal, as in eastern Africa.

2. grassland region with scattered trees, grading into either open plain or woodland, usually in subtropical or tropical regions.

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savanna British  

/ səˈvænə /

noun

1. open grasslands, usually with scattered bushes or trees, characteristic of much of tropical Africa

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savanna Scientific  

/ sə-văn′ə /

1. A flat, grass-covered area of tropical or subtropical regions, nearly treeless in some places but generally having a mix of widely spaced trees and bushes. Savannas have distinct wet and dry seasons, with the mix of vegetation dependent primarily on the relative length of the two seasons.

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savanna Cultural  

1. A tropical land mass of grassland and scattered trees.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• savannas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of savanna

First recorded in 1545–55; earlier zavana, from Spanish (now sabana ), from Taíno zabana

Explanation

A savanna is a grassy, usually tropical area of land. You're more likely to find a savanna in Tanzania than in Savannah, Georgia. You can spell this word savanna or savannah — either way, you're talking about a particular kind of ecosystem that's mostly covered with grass and sparsely placed trees. While most savannas are in tropical or subtropical parts of the world, there are also temperate savannas (including in the Great Plains of the U.S.) and mediterranean savannas, such as California's oak tree savannas. In Spanish, savanna means "treeless plain."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

savanna savannas

The hardest-hit biome last year was once again the Cerrado, a vast, biodiverse savanna south of the Amazon.

From Barron's ● May 27, 2026

The research used forest inventory data from 2,700 plots across the country, ranging from cool moist forests to dry savanna.

From Barron's ● Jan. 6, 2026

Architect Paul R. Williams’ Guardian Angel Cathedral, which opened in the city in 1963, is cited as a design influence, as are the singular stocky trunk baobab trees of the African savanna.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025

Amazon Rainforest: Rising temperatures and ongoing deforestation have placed the Amazon rainforest at risk of large-scale transformation into savanna between 1.5-2°C of warming.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2025

During the dry season the water evaporates and the Beni becomes a hot, arid savanna, kept open by annual burning.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Capybaras aren’t native to Mexico; they are South American, occupying savannas and vegetated areas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026

The scale of the increase varied across the four different biomes surveyed, with the sharpest rise in tropical savannas.

From Barron's ● Jan. 6, 2026

This giraffe lives in the open savannas and wooded grasslands of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2025

Because environmental cues are different in Los Angeles than in the jacaranda’s native savannas of Argentina and Brazil, the trees do not flower here by clockwork.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024

Had Indonesia faced the tropical rain forests and savannas of northeastern Australia, the Macassans could have settled, but there is no evidence that they ever traveled that far.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• grassland