Timbuktu

[tim-buhk-too, tim-buhk-too]

noun

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

2. any faraway place.

Timbuktu

/ 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

Timbuktu

¹

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

Timbuktu

²

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

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.

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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.

Read more on Barron's

On 2 June, militants targeted both an army camp and airport in the ancient, northern city of Timbuktu.

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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.

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Jordan assented enthusiastically, grousing: “You have a judge in Timbuktu, California, who can do some order and some injunction” to obstruct Trump.

Read more on Los Angeles Times