Timbuktu

American  

[tim-buhk-too, tim-buhk-too] / ˌtɪm bʌkˈtu, tɪmˈbʌk tu /

noun

1. French Tombouctou.  a town in central Mali, W Africa, near the Niger River.

2. any faraway place.

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Timbuktu British  

/ ˌtɪmbʌkˈtuː /

noun

1. French name: Tombouctou.  a town in central Mali, on the River Niger: terminus of a trans-Saharan caravan route; a great Muslim centre (14th–16th centuries). Pop: 31 973 (1998)

2. any distant or outlandish place

   from here to Timbuktu

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Timbuktu ¹ Cultural  

1. A remote town in western Africa. Figuratively, it is a faraway and unknown place.

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Timbuktu ² Cultural  

1. City in central Mali, in western Africa, near the Niger River.

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Discover More

By the fourteenth century, it was famous for its gold trade.

Example Sentences

Whether they were in London, Budapest, or Timbuktu, she was still the children’s governess, after all.

From Literature

The various embassies' recent actions "reveal a critical and rapid deterioration of security, even around Bamako, which until now had been relatively spared", Bakary Sambe of the Timbuktu Institute, a Dakar-based think tank, told AFP.

From Barron's

Timbuktu, a UN World Heritage Site, was captured by Islamist militants in 2012 before they were driven out, but has once more been under siege in recent years.

From BBC

First, I’ve been to the real Timbuktu, which is a desert outpost in Mali.

From Los Angeles Times

He was handed over to the ICC in 2018 by the Malian authorities - five years after French troops helped liberate Timbuktu from the jihadists.

From BBC