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Glite Dictionary
grama grass

grama grass

8.2
A grass that grows on plains for animals to eat
  • noun
  • /ˈɡræmə ɡræs/
  • US
translation icon : grama
  • The mesquite, bleached grama grass, and sage were flora of little rain.

Examples

  • After the rainfall, the grama grass grew tall and green, making it a perfect spot for grazing.

  • It was almost flat, covered with sagebrush and grama grass, and he and Terry rolled out the tent in a good spot.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The rancher decided to plant more grama grass in the pasture for his cattle to graze on.

  • During the summer, the fields were lush with grama grass, providing ample food for the livestock.

Synonyms

grama
vsgrama grass
  • US
1 9.9

A short grass from plains that farm animals eat

is the same plant but expressed with different phrasing
gramma
vsgrama grass
  • US
9.9

A grass that grows on American plains and feeds farm animals

is used for grazing rather than focusing on feed role

Surface Forms

grama grass singular
grama grasses plural

Morphology

grama + grass

The noun phrase is directly compositional: 'grama' specifies a particular kind and 'grass' names the plant class, so 'grama grass' straightforwardly means a type of grass used for grazing. This kind of noun–noun naming for plant species is common in English and cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Grama grass likely comes from Spanish-speaking farmers who called low, tough pasture plants grama. The two words, grama and grass, paint a clear image of a hardy plant for animals to 'graze' on, so the name now means a common pasture grass.