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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

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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 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 All 40 rooms in the low-lying, two-story building look onto the park’s iconic towers, with large windows to catch Patagonia’s expansive steppes and skies. — Sarah Marshall, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for steppes
  1. plains
  2. prairies
  3. grasslands
  4. savannas
Noun
  • The plains were a far smoother ride, and both our joints and the Jeep’s suspension settled down to coast over kilometres of unbroken grassland.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2026
  • The fertile plains of Punjab are a world apart from the Appalachian Mountains, to which country music traces its roots.
    — Harmeet Kaur, CNN Money, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of plains
Noun
  • 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
  • Yet the black-footed ferret remains the face of conservation of the prairies.
    — Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of prairies
Noun
  • More than 85% of the world’s wetlands are gone, according to researchers, and North America has already lost more than half its grasslands.
    — Story Hinckley, Christian Science Monitor, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Up to a million wild black-footed ferrets once bounded in the grasslands from Canada to Mexico, between Arizona and Kansas.
    — Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of grasslands
Noun
  • 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
  • The new property is nestled inside a 45,000-acre private conservancy with open savannahs and waterholes nearby.
    — Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 8 July 2026
Definition of savannas

Browse Nearby Words

stepped up
steppes
stepping
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Cite this Entry

“Steppes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/steppes. Accessed 29 Sep. 2026.

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