Timbuktu

[ tim-buhk-too, tim-buhk-too ]

noun
  1. a town in central Mali, W Africa, near the Niger River.: French Tombouctou.

  2. any faraway place.

Words Nearby Timbuktu

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How to use Timbuktu in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for Timbuktu

Timbuktu

/ (ˌtɪmbʌkˈtuː) /


noun
  1. a town in central Mali, on the River Niger: terminus of a trans-Saharan caravan route; a great Muslim centre (14th–16th centuries). Pop: 31 973 (1998): French name: Tombouctou

  2. any distant or outlandish place: from here to Timbuktu

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Timbuktu (1 of 2)

Timbuktu

[ (tim-buk-tooh) ]


A remote town in western Africa. Figuratively, it is a faraway and unknown place.

Timbuktu

[ (tim-buk-tooh) ]


City in central Mali, in western Africa, near the Niger River.

Notes for Timbuktu

By the fourteenth century, it was famous for its gold trade.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.