| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| chaparral |
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| SYLLABICATION: | chap·ar·ral |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  sh p  -rl |
| NOUN: | 1. Ecology A biome characterized by hot dry summers and cool moist winters and dominated by a dense growth of mostly small-leaved evergreen shrubs, as that found in the foothills of California. 2. A dense thicket of shrubs and small trees. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Spanish, from chaparro, evergreen oak, from Basque txapar, diminutive of saphar, thicket.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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