Meaning & use
Sahara
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Meanings
proper nounproper
The huge desert of northern Africa, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and covering much of the continent's north.
Grammar: Always capitalized, usually with 'the': the Sahara or the Sahara Desert.
Patterns
- the Sahara
- across the Sahara
- in the Sahara
Caravans once carried salt across the Sahara.
Dust from the Sahara sometimes drifts as far as the Caribbean.
They flew over the Sahara on their way to Nairobi.
nounsingularfigurativeinformal
Any extremely hot, dry and barren place, used as a comparison.
Grammar: Used figuratively and often capitalized: the room was a Sahara.
Patterns
- like the Sahara
- a Sahara of something
After three days without rain the garden was a Sahara.
The office felt like the Sahara when the air conditioning failed.
Common combinations
- Sahara Desert
- The Sahara Desert covers an area almost as large as the United States.
- cross the Sahara
- Explorers took weeks to cross the Sahara by camel.
- edge of the Sahara
- The village sits on the edge of the Sahara.
- Sahara dust
- Sahara dust turned the sky orange over the island.
- southern Sahara
- Rainfall in the southern Sahara is very unpredictable.
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- The program supports schools across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Synonyms and how they differ
- desert
- Desert is the general term for any dry barren region, while the Sahara names one specific, enormous example.
- wasteland
- Wasteland suggests land that is barren and unusable, not necessarily sandy or hot like the Sahara.
- wilderness
- Wilderness stresses untouched natural land of any kind, not specifically dry or sandy.
Word family
- Saharan adjective
- relating to the Sahara
- sub-Saharan adjective
- lying south of the Sahara
- trans-Saharan adjective
- crossing the Sahara, as in trans-Saharan trade
Commonly confused: Sahara or Sahara Desert?
Sahara vs Sahara Desert
Sahara itself comes from an Arabic word for desert, so 'Sahara Desert' repeats the idea, but it is still the normal way to say it in English.
Practice
Which phrase correctly describes the region south of the Sahara?
Choose one answer.
Sub-Saharan is the established adjective meaning south of the Sahara. 'Saharan Africa' would suggest the desert itself, and the other options are not real terms.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Sahara”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.