pampas
pampas Lexical Profile
pampas Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Extensive, fertile, largely treeless grassy plains in southeastern South America, covering large areas of central Argentina, Uruguay, and southernmost Brazil.
"Generations of gauchos have herded cattle across the vast, windswept expanses of the Argentine pampas."
A tall, tussock-forming perennial South American grass (Cortaderia selloana) of the family Poaceae, widely cultivated as an ornamental plant for its large, feathery, silvery-white or pinkish plumes (short for pampas grass).
"They planted clumps of pampas along the garden border to provide privacy and autumn texture."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the early 18th century from Spanish pampas, the plural of pampa, which derives from the Quechua word bamba or pampa meaning "plain" or "flat surface between mountains."