veldt

American  

[velt] / vɛlt /

noun

plural

veldts

1. a variant of veld.

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veldt Scientific  

/ vĕlt,fĕlt /

1. An extensive, treeless grassland of southern Africa.

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Explanation

A veldt is a wide, grassy plain found in southernmost Africa. Some areas of veldt are used as farmland, while other parts are home to wildlife preserves. You can visit a veldt, or veld, by traveling to South Africa or Zimbabwe. While you won't see many trees in a veldt, there are plenty of low-lying plants, bushes, and grass. The word is Afrikaans in origin, from the Dutch veld, or "field," and it's commonly used this way in South Africa — there are Highveld and Lowveld areas, as well as rugby fields called "rugbyveldt" and sandy fields known as "sandyveldt."

Example Sentences

The high veldt rolled away, in shades of coffee and wheat.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 20, 2016

Also, square cars getting rounder, with Land Rover smoothing out its distinct boxy corners, ideal for the African veldt, to look like everything else.

From Washington Post • Jan. 30, 2015

So your partner occasionally sounds like a lion on the veldt.

From Slate • Dec. 18, 2012

The squatter camps of Diepsloot may be an unsightly conflux of scabrous shacks, but to the east, on the other side of a busy avenue, lie the rolling hills of the open veldt.

From New York Times • Jun. 2, 2011

In the distance, across the plain and enveloped with the darkness of the veldt, the difficulty of seeing intensified by shadows, the outline of the Boer laagers can be demarcated.

From The Siege of Mafeking (1900) by Hamilton, J. Angus

Related Words

• pasture
• plain
• prairie
• savanna
• steppe