What does "Sahara" mean in Arabic?

The Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى‎, aṣ-ṣaḥrāʼ al-kubrá, 'the Greatest Desert') is a desert on the African continent. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic.

The name 'Sahara' is derived from the Arabic word for "desert", ṣaḥra (صحرا /ˈsˤaħra/), plural. (Arabic صَحْرَاء ṣaḥrā' "desert", plural صَحَارَى ṣaḥārā "deserts")

For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000 year cycle caused by the precession of the Earth's axis as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African Monsoon. The area is next expected to become green in about 15,000 years (17,000 CE).