desertificazione

desertification

noun deh-zehr-tee-fee-kah-TSYOH-neh Rare

Origin: from deserto (desert) + -ficazione (Latin -ficatio, 'making into')

Usage Note

Desertificazione is the technical and journalistic term for the process by which fertile land becomes desert, used extensively in environmental and climate-change discourse. It is always feminine. The verb form is desertificare.

Examples

"La desertificazione minaccia le regioni del Sud."

Natural Translation

Desertification threatens the regions of the South.

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