Tuareg

noun

Tua·​reg ˈtwä-ˌreg 

variants or less commonly Touareg

plural Tuareg or Tuaregs also Touareg or Touaregs

: a member of a nomadic people of the central and western Sahara and along the middle Niger from Tombouctou to Nigeria

Examples of Tuareg in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Lyrically, the songs mix traditional Tuareg themes with songs about war. — David Harris, SPIN, 18 Mar. 2026

Looking like a Tuareg Marvel character, Abdoul Nasser stood next to his Honda motorbike, dressed in a full-length black overcoat, a cheche head wrap, sunglasses and a sheathed sword slung over his shoulder. — Paul C. Sereno, The Conversation, 16 Mar. 2026

His team managed to find the site, led by local Tuareg guides after driving for over a day and half through the desert. — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 7 Mar. 2026

The Tuareg will also provide thick mattresses for sleeping outside. — Henry Haselock, TheWeek, 27 Feb. 2026

In 2019, Sereno's team headed to the Sahara and met a local Tuareg man who took them to the area in Niger where what turned out to be Spinosaurus mirabilis bones were found, UChicago said. — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 22 Feb. 2026

The collapse of Libya in 2011 sparked a major influx of arms and fighters through the Sahel, with ethnic Tuareg fighters who once fought on both sides of the Libyan Civil War staging a 2012 uprising in Mali. — Tom O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Nov. 2025

Mali had just held its first multiparty presidential election, and the government signed a ceasefire with Tuareg rebels fighting for regional autonomy in the north. — Adrien Marotte, Christian Science Monitor, 5 Nov. 2025

In 2012, the town fell first to Tuareg separatists and then to jihadist groups, all of them exploiting the vacuum left by a weakened state. — Adrien Marotte, Christian Science Monitor, 5 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from North African Bedouin Arabic ṭwārəg, plural of ṭārgi, perhaps an adjective derivative from "Targa," alleged to be a Berber name for Fezzan, region of southwest Libya

Note: This etymology is from the article Ṭawāiḳ by the Berber and Tuareg specialist Karl-Gustav Prasse in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition. A similar origin is suggested by Heinrich Barth in Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord- und Central-Afrika in den Jahren 1849 bis 1855, Band 1 (Gotha, 1857), p. 246.

First Known Use

1821, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

Tuareg

noun

Tua·​reg ˈtwä-ˌreg 

plural Tuareg or Tuaregs

: a member of a nomadic people of Africa