Meaning & use
grassland
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A large area of land covered mainly with grass and few or no trees, used for grazing or home to wild animals.
Grammar: Both uses occur: the grassland stretched on, or protected grasslands.
Patterns
- an area of grassland
- grassland habitat
Herds of zebra crossed the open grassland at dawn.
Much of the grassland in this region has been turned into farms.
Rare butterflies live in the protected grasslands near the river.
Word forms
| plural | grasslands |
|---|
Common combinations
- open grassland
- We camped on open grassland far from any road.
- vast grassland
- A vast grassland lay beyond the hills.
- native grassland
- Volunteers are restoring native grassland.
- temperate grassland
- Temperate grassland covers parts of Argentina.
- grassland habitat
- Skylarks need grassland habitat to nest.
Synonyms and how they differ
- prairie
- Prairie names the flat grassland of North America, while grassland is a general term worldwide.
- savanna
- Savanna means tropical grassland with scattered trees, which is narrower than grassland.
- meadow
- A meadow is a smaller, often fenced field of grass and wildflowers, not a vast natural area.
- steppe
- Steppe refers to dry, treeless grassland in Eastern Europe and Asia, so it is more specific.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: grassland or pasture?
grassland vs pasture
A pasture is grass land managed for livestock, whereas grassland can be completely wild.
Practice
Which place is best described as grassland?
Choose one answer.
Grassland is land dominated by grass with few trees, so a grassy plain fits; forests, deserts and rocky peaks do not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “grassland”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.