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

Kio, whom director Favreau and company begin following when he’s eight weeks old, is a tenacious fellow and there’s never any question that life on the savanna is harsh, severe and can be very brief.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

Although some savanna areas saw increases due to shrub growth, these gains were far too small to balance the losses.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 13, 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

In a broad reach of savanna, the Beni’s original inhabitants built raised fields—artificial platforms of soil that lift crops above the floodwaters.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Field data was gathered in 2022 and 2023 across different elevations in East Africa and South America, including cool mountain forests, hot tropical rainforests, and lowland savannas.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2026

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

While the savannas and mangroves of coastal southern New Guinea are fairly similar to those of northern Australia, other habitats of the hemi-continents differ in almost all major respects.

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

Related Words

• grassland