steppe
pronunciation
How to pronounce steppe in British English:
UK [step]
How to pronounce steppe in American English:
US [stɛp]
-
- Noun:
- extensive plain without trees (associated with eastern Russia and Siberia)
Word Origin
- steppe (n.)
- vast treeless plain of southeastern Europe and of Asia, 1670s, from German steppe and directly from Russian step', of unknown origin. Introduced in Western Europe by Humboldt.
Example
- 1. These include not just mining , but also inviting chinese agriculturalists to farm great swathes of steppe .
- 2. Its 681 pages of text are at times as grueling as a forced march across the mongolian steppe .
- 3. Rio , ivanhoe and the hordes of other mining groups marauding over the steppe may want to see this as a piece of theatre .
- 4. And find it they did , in the middle of the bare steppe of the north-east , at a place called daqing .
- 5. The net effect was a shortening of the growing season by about one month for steppe plants and three weeks for meadow vegetation .