Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A semiarid area often located between a desert and a grassland or woodland.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Half-desert; mostly barren, with a sparse vegetation.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
semiarid region, approachingdesert .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a region much like a desert but usually located between a desert and the surrounding regions
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Native to South Africa, ostriches long roamed a vast semidesert plain called the Karoo.
Bird-Watching 2010
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Scattered shrubs and low trees sometimes grow in the steppe; all gradations of cover are present, from semidesert to woodland.
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Temperate desert climates support the sparse xerophytic shrub vegetation typical of semidesert.
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The lower slopes of the mountains and the basal plain are dominated by sagebrush semidesert or steppe.
Middle Rocky Mountain Steppe - Coniferous Forest - Alpine Meadow Province (Bailey) 2009
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In the intermountain region of the Western United States between the Pacific coast and Rocky Mountains, the temperate desert has characteristics of a sagebrush (Artemisia) semidesert, with a very pronounced drought season and a short humid season.
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Mali is among the poorest countries in the world, with 65% of its land area desert or semidesert and with a highly unequal distribution of income.
Mali 2009
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Natural vegetation ranges from Douglas-fir forest on steep, north-facing slopes at higher elevations to desert and semidesert grassland or shrubland on lower, drier sites.
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The vegetation is steppe, sometimes called shortgrass prairie, and semidesert.
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In winter, seasonal changes force many birds and mammals to move from the mountains into the sagebrush semidesert, where they find suitable habitat alongside the area's permanent residents.
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Recently, semidesert shrub vegetation seems to have invaded wide areas of the Western United States that were formerly steppe grasslands, due to overgrazing and trampling by livestock.
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