tundra

Borrowed from Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯндрэ (tūndre), the accusative and genitive form of тӯндар (tūndar).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌndɹə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

tundra (countable and uncountable, plural tundras)

1. A flat and treeless Arctic biome.
   • 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

     The hut's walls rose without difficulty, and everything went smoothly until the problem of the roof confronted me. Of what use the four walls without a roof? And of what could a roof be made? There were the spare oars, very true. They would serve as roof-beams; but with what was I to cover them? Moss would never do. Tundra grass was impracticable. We needed the sail for the boat, and the tarpaulin had begun to leak.

2. A long stretch of something, such as time.
   • 1979 August 12, Ivan Gold, “One Man's Family”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     His wife and he were childhood sweethearts; he had known her for 25 years. (He will call her “my wife” throughout, just as he cannot bear to name his two sons, however carefully and lovingly he will eventually describe them. They remain “the older one” and “the younger one.”) There are tundras of time for him to cross and cross again as he recalls their life together and its sudden end: a quarter‐century of quotidian love and bruises and the ultimate estrangement of long familiarity.

   • 1991, Dar Williams, “Calamity John”, in All My Heroes Are Dead:

     When you stood at the gulf of unknowing, / When you saw the great tundra of time, / And you cried for the winds to come blowing, / And you called a monsoon from the tides of the moon, / 'Cause the roads were all dusty and dry.

   • 2009 December 22, Louisa Kamps, “The Distraction Diet”, in Elle‎^[2]:

     Putting on paper exactly what steps I need to take for each project does promote peace of mind, I find. And in my eagerness to tick items off on my "next action" lists, my productivity ramps up. Still, there are days of backsliding. I go to research something online, but once out on the wild Web, lose my way—and vast tundras of time—wandering further away from whatever I was looking for with each click of the mouse.

   • 2018 January 2, Sara Pascoe, “We should all pick achievable resolutions – get through three days of dry January and you’re a hero to me”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     We parcel up time into years and months and days because without compartmentalisation the tundra of time is impossible to navigate.

• tundra on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Durant, durant, truand

• IPA^(key): [ˈtundra]
• Hyphenation: tun‧d‧ra

tundra f

1. tundra (flat and treeless arctic biome)

• “tundra”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “tundra”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

From Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯннтрэ (tūnntre), the accusative/genitive form of тӯнтар (tūntar).

tundra f (genitive singular tundru, uncountable)

1. tundra (flat and treeless arctic biome)

   Synonym: frostmýri

Borrowed from Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯннтрэ (tūnntre), the accusative/genitive form of тӯнтар (tūntar). Doublet of tanner, tantere, and tunturi.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtundrɑ/, [ˈt̪un.drɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -undrɑ
• Syllabification^(key): tund‧ra
• Hyphenation^(key): tund‧ra

tundra

1. tundra (flat and treeless arctic biome)

• “tundra”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[4] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

tundra f (plural tundras)

1. tundra

Borrowed from Dutch toendra, from Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯндрэ (tūndre), the accusative and genitive form of тӯндар (tūndar).

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈtundra/ [ˈt̪un.dra]
• Rhymes: -undra
• Syllabification: tun‧dra

tundra (plural tundra-tundra)

1. (ecology, geography) tundra

• “tundra”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Borrowed from Russian тундра (tundra).

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈtundrɑ/, [ˈtundr]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈtundrɑ/, [ˈtund̥rɑ]
• Rhymes: -undr, -undrɑ
• Hyphenation: tund‧ra

tundra

1. (geography) tundra
   • 1936, L. G. Terehova, V. G. Erdeli, translated by P. I. Maksimov and N. A. Iljin, Geografia: oppikirja iƶoroin alkușkoulun neljättä klaassaa vart (toine osa), Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-Pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 28:

     Kuin sovetin valta uuvvistaa tundran väen elon.

     How the Soviet rule is renewing the life of the tundra people.

Declension of tundra (type 3/koira, no gradation)
	singular	plural
nominative	tundra	tundrat
genitive	tundran	tundriin
partitive	tundraa	tundria
illative	tundraa	tundrii
inessive	tundraas	tundriis
elative	tundrast	tundrist
allative	tundralle	tundrille
adessive	tundraal	tundriil
ablative	tundralt	tundrilt
translative	tundraks	tundriks
essive	tundranna, tundraan	tundrinna, tundriin
exessive1)	tundrant	tundrint
1) obsolete *) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka? or -kä? to the genitive.

From Russian, from Kildin Sami.

tundra m (genitive singular tundra, nominative plural tundraí)

1. tundra

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “tundra”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “tundra”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “tundra”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm

From Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯннтрэ (tūnntre), the accusative/genitive form of тӯнтар (tūntar).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtun.dra/
• Rhymes: -undra
• Hyphenation: tùn‧dra

tundra f (plural tundre)

1. tundra

Ultimately from Russian ту́ндра (túndra).

• IPA^(key): [ˈtundɾa]
• Hyphenation: tun‧dra

tundra f (4th declension)

1. tundra (a natural zone that has developed in the arctic and subarctic zones and is characterised by low average temperatures, high humidity and short growing seasons)
   • 2024 December 20, Claudi Casals, kas ir tundra‎^[5]:

     Varbūt jūs kādreiz esat dzirdējuši par to, ko sauc par "tundru", gan filmā, gan seriālā, gan dokumentālajā filmā. Bet kas ir tundra?

     You may have heard of what is called "the tundra" in a film, TV series or documentary. But what is the tundra?

2. tundra (the geographical area in the arctic and subarctic zone between the arctic deserts and the forest tundra)

• “tundra” in Latviešu literārās valodas vārdnīca
• “tundra” in Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīca
• tundra at tezaurs.lv

From Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯннтрэ (tūnntre), the accusative/genitive form of тӯнтар (tūntar).

tundra m (definite singular tundraen, indefinite plural tundraer, definite plural tundraene)

1. tundra

• “tundra” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯннтрэ (tūnntre), the accusative/genitive form of тӯнтар (tūntar).

tundra m (definite singular tundraen, indefinite plural tundraer or trundraar, definite plural tundraene or tundraane)

1. tundra

• “tundra” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from Russian ту́ндра (túndra).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtun.dra/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -undra
• Syllabification: tun‧dra

tundra f (related adjective tundrowy)

1. tundra (flat and treeless Arctic biome)

• tundra in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• tundra in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French toundra, from Russian ту́ндра (túndra).

• Hyphenation: tun‧dra

tundra f (plural tundras)

1. (geography) tundra (flat, treeless region around the Arctic)

• “tundra”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “tundra”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

From Russian ту́ндра (túndra).

• IPA^(key): /tûːndra/
• Hyphenation: tun‧dra

tȗndra f (Cyrillic spelling ту̑ндра)

1. tundra

• “tundra”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026

• IPA^(key): /ˈtundɾa/ [ˈt̪ũn̪.d̪ɾa]
• Rhymes: -undɾa
• Syllabification: tun‧dra

tundra f (plural tundras)

1. tundra

• “tundra”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Borrowed from Russian ту́ндра (túndra), from Kildin Sami тӯннтрэ (tūnntre), the accusative/genitive form of тӯнтар (tūntar).

tundra c

1. tundra

• tundra in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tundra in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tundra in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• rundat, undrat

From Ottoman Turkish توندره, from English tundra.

• IPA^(key): /tundɾa/

tundra (definite accusative tundrayı, plural tundralar)

1. tundra

   Synonym: kutup bozkırı

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “tundra”, in Nişanyan Sözlük