variants
or less commonly savannah
1
: a treeless plain especially in Florida
2
a
: a tropical or subtropical grassland (as of eastern Africa or northern South America) containing scattered trees and drought-resistant undergrowth
b
: a temperate grassland with scattered trees (such as oaks)
Examples of savanna in a Sentence
lions roaming the savanna
Recent Examples on the Web
The Amazon rainforest could wither into a savanna; coral reefs could bleach ghost-white; a major current in the Atlantic Ocean might go slack and fail to deliver warmth to Europe, turning Scotland into Siberia.
—
Gregory Barber, Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2025
The group continued walking through an oak savanna and a red-pine forest before arriving at Valley Creek, their turnaround spot.
—Mary Divine, Twin Cities, 14 Sep. 2025
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images An insurgency was launched by Boko Haram in 2009 to establish a caliphate in Nigeria and the broader Sahel (the semi-arid transitional zone between the Sahara and savannas), with several other terrorist groups also active in the region.
—Marni Rose McFall, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Sep. 2025
Most travelers associate the Great Migration with East Africa’s Serengeti-Mara ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya, where millions of blue wildebeest—African antelopes also called gnus—thunder across the savanna each year.
—Mazuba Kapambwe, AFAR Media, 10 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for savanna
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Gregory Barber, Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2025
The group continued walking through an oak savanna and a red-pine forest before arriving at Valley Creek, their turnaround spot.
—Mary Divine, Twin Cities, 14 Sep. 2025
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images An insurgency was launched by Boko Haram in 2009 to establish a caliphate in Nigeria and the broader Sahel (the semi-arid transitional zone between the Sahara and savannas), with several other terrorist groups also active in the region.
—Marni Rose McFall, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Sep. 2025
Most travelers associate the Great Migration with East Africa’s Serengeti-Mara ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya, where millions of blue wildebeest—African antelopes also called gnus—thunder across the savanna each year.
—Mazuba Kapambwe, AFAR Media, 10 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for savanna
Cite this Entry
“Savanna.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/savanna. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
savanna
noun
sa·van·na
variants
also savannah
: a grassland (as of eastern Africa or northern South America) containing scattered trees
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