from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation such as lichens, mosses, and stunted shrubs.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A flat and treeless arctic biome.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. One of the level or undulating treeless plains characteristic of northern arctic regions in both hemispheres; the term is most commony associated with the arctic plains of Siberia. The tundras mark the limit of arborescent vegetation; they consist of black mucky soil with a permanently frozen subsoil, but support a dense growth of mosses and lichens, and dwarf herbs and shrubs, often showy-flowered.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A marshy moss-covered plain or rolling district, deeply frozen in winter and thawed at the surface in the summer. Such plains occupy large areas of arctic Asia and North America.
- n. In the northern part of Russia (both in Europe and in Asia), one of the nearly level treeless areas which occupy most of that region, and do not differ essentially from the steppes, except that, lying further north, their climate and vegetation are more decidedly arctic than those of the country to the south, with a corresponding increase in the number of small lakes and morasses.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a vast treeless plain in the Arctic regions where the subsoil is permanently frozen
Russian, from Sami tūndar, flat-topped hill.(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
From Kildin Sami tū̄ndra, the genitive form of тӯндар (tūndar, "treeless plain"). (Wiktionary)