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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Timbuktu

"All these operations, which are intermediate steps pending a more spectacular assault, contribute to weakening and isolating the regime", Bakary Sambe, director of the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026

They are now advancing on Timbuktu and seeking to lay siege to the capital of Bamako.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026

Mariam Cissé, said to be in her 20s and with over 100,000 TikTok followers, posted videos about life in her Tonka hometown in the northern Timbuktu region and often expressed support for the army.

From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025

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 ● Oct. 31, 2025

I tried to read in their faces where else they’d been, if their travels had taken them to places like Mongolia, Singapore, Timbuktu.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago