Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A semiarid region of north-central Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Since the 1960s it has been afflicted by prolonged periods of extensive drought.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun a region in Africa, between the Sahara to the north and a more humid zone (Sudan) to the south.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic sāḥil, coast, shore (of the Sahara); see Swahili.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Arabic sahil "border of the desert".

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Examples

  • Asia has the greatest concentration of areas of rapid land-cover change, but existing data do not support the claim that the African Sahel is a desertification hotspot.

    Science press releases 2005

  • Bet il Sahel is relatively much smaller than Bet il Mtoni, and is likewise situated hard by the sea; there is something smiling and pleasant about the place which is reflected in the residents.

    Memoirs of an Arabian Princess 1907

  • Sahara desert known as the Sahel, meaning already poor countries are now running out of food - with harvests still months away.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2005

  • For the moment, he says, French forces in the Sahel are here to support diplomacy.

    Niger Uneasy About French Troops Tracking Abductions 2010

  • "Like the Horn of Africa, the Sahel is an area where we need to work in a concerted way to provide resilience for families to avoid famine," said Nancy Lindborg USAID's Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance.

    Tom Murphy: USAID: Building Resiliency In The Horn of Africa Tom Murphy 2011

  • "Like the Horn of Africa, the Sahel is an area where we need to work in a concerted way to provide resilience for families to avoid famine," said Nancy Lindborg USAID's Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance.

    Tom Murphy: USAID: Building Resiliency In The Horn of Africa Tom Murphy 2011

  • The Sahel is a much hotter and drier desert climate.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Tim Hartman - Cameroon 2009

  • The Sahel is a much hotter and drier desert climate.

    The North, Part I - Adamaoua Tim Hartman - Cameroon 2009

  • There is savanna in south where Mali include part of the belt of land extending across Africa called the Sahel and which in this part of the continent include the Niger River.

    Mali 2009

  • The food crisis in the sub-Saharan region known as the Sahel - stretching from Senegal to Ethiopia - is improving, but major challenges still lie ahead, experts said Wednesday at the end of a two-day conference on the region.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2006

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  • the region of transition between the desert and tropical forests in Africa

    January 21, 2010