taiga
/ˈtaɪɡə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.62 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A subarctic zone of evergreen coniferous forests situated south of the tundras and north of the steppes in the Northern Hemisphere.
name
Alternative spelling of Tayga.
Example Sentences
- "The mountains run from the Arctic Island of Novaya Zemlya southwards, dividing the endless wastes of the Siberian taiga and the steppes from the Russian platform in the west."
- "Like the taiga, he was everywhere, and mysterious—a heroic being with unearthly gifts."
- "The taiga is anything but pristine wilderness: It is an inhabited landscape where the indigenous Sámi and their reindeer have lived ever since the ice retreated 10,000 years ago. […] Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: тайга́, -, тайга
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈtaɪɡə/
Inflected Forms
Phrases
Synonyms
boreal forest
snow forest