steppes

noun

plural of steppe
as in plains
a broad area of level or rolling treeless country nomads have long grazed yaks on the steppes of Mongolia

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of steppes Today, Astana’s skyline can keep up with the best of them, with 21st-century architectural marvels made from concrete, steel, and glass cresting over the country’s endless steppes into the horizon. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 16 Oct. 2026 The two tortoises on board were, appropriately, Russian steppes tortoises, NASA has said. — Tariq Malik, Space.com, 15 Sep. 2026 Historical legacy is not destiny, and Russia’s excesses cannot be blamed solely on its ties to the political culture of the steppes. — Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026 The unification of the Eurasian steppes under Genghis Khan and his successors—Ögödei, Möngke, and Kublai Khan—brought many of these trade routes under a single political authority for the first time. — Ethan Teekah, Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 Aug. 2026 Similar trends have played out in Central Asian steppes and South American plains. — Tristan Bove, Fortune, 1 June 2026 Longer-running hiking trips take you everywhere from Western Greenland to the sea cliffs of the Faroe Islands, the steppes of Mongolia, or the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan. — The Editors, Outside, 18 Mar. 2026 Folktales are filled with people fighting to survive in forests, steppes, and deserts, and evading and outwitting the wild beasts that dwell within them. — Literary Hub, 18 Feb. 2026 Rather than having to find their own sales channels, participating farmers working off tiny plots on mountain steppes can sell their corn to the company at a set price for unified processing, before the corn is sold online and to major distributors. — Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, 11 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for steppes
  1. plains
  2. prairies
  3. grasslands
  4. savannas
Noun
  • Behind the storm, colder overnight temperatures could bring the first freeze of the season to much of Colorado's eastern plains.
    — Callie Zanandrie, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Block after block of hulking data centers – both new and under construction – rise up seemingly out of nowhere from rolling plains and fields of sunflowers and sorghum.
    — Simone McCarthy, CNN Money, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of plains
Noun
  • Vintage finds, including an antique Swedish farm table, sit alongside custom bronze racks, while a swath of grass has been installed along the length of the shopfront window, nodding to the prairies of Wescoat Pound’s native Midwest.
    — Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Over his shoulder was an enormous portrait of the hatchet-wielding temperance crusader Carrie Nation, an icon of resistance to the excesses of the first Gilded Age, when similar discontent had roiled the prairies.
    — Kyle Paoletta, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of prairies
Noun
  • Filmed on the Mongolian grasslands, the film portrays the chaos of the early days of the Covid pandemic.
    — Liz Shackleton, Deadline, 14 Oct. 2026
  • For millennia, the Great Steppe, a vast landscape of grasslands, deserts, and rolling fields that covers much of Kazakhstan, was home to roaming Turkic tribes, known by the 15th century as the Kazakh Khanate.
    — Yulia Denisyuk, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of grasslands
Noun
  • El Niño threatens soy and corn harvests in the south while plunging savannahs and rainforests into drought and sparking wildfires.
    — DAN RESTREPO, Foreign Affairs, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The center of the activities was a grove, within a ring of trees, considered to be one of the oldest oak savannas in the state.
    — Gregory Harutunian, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of savannas

Browse Nearby Words

stepped up
steppes
stepping
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Steppes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/steppes. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All