steppe

[ step ]

/ stɛp /

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See synonyms for steppe on Thesaurus.com

noun

an extensive plain, especially one without trees.

The Steppes,

Also called Eurasian Steppe, Great Steppe . the vast grasslands stretching from Asia to Eastern Europe, bounded on the north by European and Asian Russia and Siberia.
Kirghiz Steppe.

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Origin of steppe

First recorded in 1665–75; from Russian step' or Ukrainian step; further origin uncertain

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH steppe

step, steppe

Words nearby steppe

step out, step out of line, stepover, steppage, stepparent, steppe, stepped-up, Steppenwolf, stepper, Steppes, stepping-off place

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use steppe in a sentence

The impacts of climate change are amplified across the mountains and steppes that snow leopards call home, where average temperatures are predicted to rise at a rate more than twice the global average.
What Is Killing Nepal’s Snow Leopards?|abarronian|July 27, 2022|Outside Online
On and off for over 2,000 years, rulers based around the Yellow River built up strategic depth of their own by fighting Mongols, Turks, and other nomads on the steppes and pushing inland to the mountains of Xinjiang, Yunnan, and Tibet.
Central Asia Could Be the Key to Driving a Wedge Between Russia and China|Ian Morris|May 12, 2022|Time
Their idea is that steppe will keep the ground frozen year-round.
Rewilding returns lost species to strengthen ecosystems|Alison Pearce Stevens|January 6, 2022|Science News For Students
Originally from the steppes of Europe and Asia, it had been brought to North America as forage for cattle, but scientists had a hunch it could also feed people.
A recipe for fighting climate change and feeding the world|Sarah Kaplan|October 12, 2021|Washington Post

They ate the grass and pooped the nutrients back into the ground, closing the loop on the steppe’s carbon-nitrogen cycle.
This CRISPR startup thinks that mammoths can save the Arctic. Is it right?|Charlotte Hu|September 13, 2021|Popular-Science
Mentally, the man of the steppe and the desert is to-day little advanced beyond his predecessors of thousands of years ago.
Man And His Ancestor|Charles Morris
He dreamed he was on a bare steppe, strewn with big stones, under a lowering sky.
Dream Tales and Prose Poems|Ivan Turgenev
A man traveling alone across the steppe, may be easily guessed to be a courier of the Czar.
Michael Strogoff|Jules Verne
Half an hour after the berlin was left far behind, looking only a speck on the horizon of the steppe.
Michael Strogoff|Jules Verne
She knows the steppe, and would have no fear in just taking her staff and going down the banks of the Irtych.
Michael Strogoff|Jules Verne

British Dictionary definitions for steppe

steppe

/ (stɛp) /

noun

(often plural) an extensive grassy plain usually without treesCompare prairie, pampas

Word Origin for steppe

C17: from Old Russian step lowland

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012