karoo
/kəˈru/
karoo noun: any vast prairie bordering a desert.
Noun
karoo (plural karoos)
- Any vast prairie bordering a desert.
- Any of the composite bushes typical of the Karoo.
- The herd is kept in an enclosure with wire fence about 7 feet high[…] They eat grass and karoo, but prefer bush of every kind, even eating the bitter aloe.1901 July 5, “Domestication of the Eland”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 9, page 273
Proper noun capitalized: Karoo
IPA/kəˈruːə/
Karoo
- The vast plain in South Africa that borders the Kalahari Desert.
Forms of karoo
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | karoos |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Karroo |
Origin of karoo
Originates from the Khoikhoi word karo (meaning dry, and hard)
From Afrikaans Karoo, from Khoekhoe ǃ’Aukarob (“hardveld”).
Words formed from karoo
Phrases with karoo
Questions about karoo
- What does karoo mean?
- Karoo means any vast prairie bordering a desert.
- What part of speech is karoo?
- Karoo can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce karoo?
- Karoo is pronounced /kəˈru/.
- What is the plural of karoo?
- The plural of karoo is karoos.
Words near karoo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: karoo (page history and authors); Karoo (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-karoo.wav.
Cite this entry: “karoo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/karoo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.