an extensive, level or slightly undulating, mostly treeless tract of land in the Mississippi valley, characterized by a highly fertile soil and originally covered with coarse grasses, and merging into drier plateaus in the west. Compare pampas, savanna, steppe.
2.
a tract of grassland; meadow.
3.
(in Florida) a low, sandy tract of grassland often covered with water.
4.
Southern U.S.wet grassland; marsh.
5.
(initial capital letter) a steam locomotive having a two-wheeled front truck, six driving wheels, and a two-wheeled rear truck.
Origin: 1675–85; < F: meadow < VL *prātāria, equiv. to L prāt(um) meadow + -āria, fem. of -ārius-ary
Related forms:
prai⋅rie⋅like, adjective
Prairie, The
–noun
a historical novel (1827) by James Fenimore Cooper.
prai·rie (prâr'ē) n. An extensive area of flat or rolling, predominantly treeless grassland, especially the large tract or plain of central North America.
[French, from Old French praierie, from Vulgar Latin *prātāria, from Latin prāta, meadow.]
[prair-ee] 
) a steam locomotive having a two-wheeled front truck, six driving wheels, and a two-wheeled rear truck.