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

Deforestation also decreased in the Cerrado -- a vast, biodiverse savanna south of the Amazon.

From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026

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

Nonprofits and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026

"These centuries-old stories provide us a rare glimpse into the past, and that the past was a savanna past, not a forested past," Nerlekar said.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2026

But The Taker stalks her, like a cheetah stalks a gazelle in the open savanna.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026

Nerlekar, a plant scientist, recognized many of those plants as species still common in today's savannas.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 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

On his travels in rain forests and tropical savannas, he ate with pleasure whatever the locals were eating.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Related Words

• grassland