harmattan
UK/ˌhɑːməˈtæn/US/ˌhɑɹməˈtæn/
harmattan noun: a dry and dusty wind which blows from the Sahara over the Atlantic coast of West Africa in December, January and February, being a hot wind in some areas and a cold wind in others.
Noun
harmattan (plural harmattans)
- A dry and dusty wind which blows from the Sahara over the Atlantic coast of West Africa in December, January and February, being a hot wind in some areas and a cold wind in others.
- Storm-clouds stretched their arms across the sky; from the east, to all appearances, might come a fierce harmattan, or from the south might come the fierce hurricane.1900, Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World
- That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this time Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan.1958 June 17, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, New York, N.Y.: Astor-Honor, published 1959, →OCLC, part 1, page 1
- A season which spans the period in which the harmattan wind blows.
Forms of harmattan
| plural | harmattans |
|---|
Origin of harmattan
From Twi Akan haramata or a related word (whence also Spanish harmatán). The ultimate origin is supposed by some to be an Arabic word, but which one is uncertain; حَرَام (ḥarām, “accursed thing”) has been suggested.
Questions about harmattan
- What does harmattan mean?
- Harmattan means a dry and dusty wind which blows from the Sahara over the Atlantic coast of West Africa in December, January and February, being a hot wind in some areas and a cold wind in others.
- What part of speech is harmattan?
- Harmattan is a noun.
- How do you pronounce harmattan?
- Harmattan is pronounced /ˌhɑːməˈtæn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of harmattan?
- The plural of harmattan is harmattans.
Words near harmattan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: harmattan (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “harmattan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/harmattan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.