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Veld (also spelled veldt) comes from Afrikaans, the language of the Afrikaners, the descendants of the Dutch and Huguenot people who settled in southern Africa in the 17th century. Literally, veld means "field," and is akin to feld, the Old English predecessor of field. English speakers adopted the Africa-specific sense of veld in the 18th century. Veld refers to open country in southern Africa. Different regions of the veld are distinguished by their elevations. There is the Highveld, the Lowveld, and the Middle Veld, each with different geographical characteristics. Another term associated with veld is kopje (or koppie). This word came to English from Afrikaans (and ultimately from a Dutch word meaning "small head" or "cup") and refers to a small hill, particularly one on the African veld.

Examples of veld in a Sentence

lions prowling the African veld

Recent Examples on the Web Working with local landscape architect Dawid Klopper, the couple removed most of the non-native foliage and replaced it with indigenous plants more typical of South Africa’s veld, or grassland, like aloes and red grass. — Ingrid Abramovitch, ELLE Decor, 5 Jan. 2021 There is still plenty of grassland here, or veld, as South Africans call it. — David Mckenzie, CNN, 6 Mar. 2020 The veld looked like the giant desiccated hide of some ancient creature, skinned and scarred and skeletal. — Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Dec. 2018 Early in the play, Piet says of the plants: That veld is a hard world. — Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 29 May 2018 Only 20 feet separated my truck from the king of the veld. — charlotteobserver, 27 Oct. 2017 The giraffe now appeared to be part of a surreal painting, running across a purplish veld beneath a red sky. — Richard Sandomir, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2017 But while giraffes, zebras, elephants, lions, baboons and warthogs stalk, clamber and strut across the veld, the one thing tourists and hunters will rarely see on a South African safari is a black South African. — Nina Burleigh, Newsweek, 8 Aug. 2017 The rough exurbs of Cape Town yielded to an amber veld with patches of irrigated green; hills rose and fell. — Ted Conover, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2016 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'veld.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.