Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A city of central Mali near the Niger River northeast of Bamako. Founded in the 11th century by the Tuareg, it became a major trading center (primarily for gold and salt) and a center of Islamic learning by the 14th century. Timbuktu was sacked in 1591 by invaders from Morocco and fell to the French in 1894.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A city in central Mali.
  • proper noun Any proverbially distant or remote place.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a city in central Mali near the Niger river; formerly famous for its gold trade

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