prai·rie

[prair-ee]
noun
1.
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; < French: meadow < Vulgar Latin *prātāria, equivalent to Latin prāt(um) meadow + -āria, feminine of -ārius -ary

prai·rie·like, adjective
00:10
Prairie is always a great word to know.
So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

Prairie, The

noun
a historical novel (1827) by James Fenimore Cooper.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To prairie
Collins
World English Dictionary
prairie (ˈprɛərɪ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
(often plural) pampas steppe Compare savanna a treeless grassy plain of the central US and S Canada
 
[C18: from French, from Old French praierie, from Latin prātum meadow]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

prairie
tract of level or undulating grassland in N.Amer., 1773, from Fr. prairie, from O.Fr. praerie (12c.), from V.L. *prataria, from L. pratum "meadow," originally "a hollow." The word existed in M.E. as prayere, but was lost and reborrowed to describe the American plains. Prairie dog is attested from 1774;
prairie schooner "immigrant's wagon" is from 1841.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
prairie   (prâr'ē)  Pronunciation Key 
An extensive area of flat or rolling grassland, especially the large plain of central North America.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
Researchers work to decode a complex language of chirps and squeaks that
  prairie dogs use to warn each other of predators.
It depends mainly on the abandoned burrows of prairie dogs for nesting sites
  and shelter.
Not to mention people seeking concert and movie tickets for campus cultural
  events, prairie lovers and physics groupies.
The landscape is slowly becoming more open and green, the prairie reappearing
  from beneath the plant.
Images for prairie
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