Geography Vocabulary
Unit 1-11 Vocabulary
Aborigine: an area’s original inhabitants
Absolute Location: the exact position of a place on the earth’s surface.
Accretion: a slow process, in which a sea plate slides under a continental plate, creating debris that causes content to grow outwards.
Acid Disposition: wet or dry air born acid that fall to the earth.
Acid Rain: precipitation carrying large amounts of dissolved acids which damages buildings. forests, crops, and killing wildlife.
Acupuncture: an ancient practice that involves inserting fine needles into the body at specific points in order to cure disease and ease pain
Alluvial Plain: floodplain, such as the Indo-Gangetic Plain in South Asia, on which flooding rivers have deposited rich soil.
Alluvial Soil: rich soil made of sand and mud deposited by running water
Altiplano: Spanish for “high plain,” a region in Peru and Bolivia encircled by the Andes Peaks.
Amendment: in U.S. history, official changes made to the Constitution.
Apartheid: policy of strict separation of the races adopted in South Africa in the 1940’s
Aquaculture: underground water-bearing layers of phosphorus rock, sand, or gravel.
Aquifer: underground water-bearing layers of porous rock, sand, and gravel.
Arable: suitable for growing crops.
Archipelago: a group or chain of islands.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Group (APEC): a trade group, whose members are Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan, which ensures that trade among the member countries, is efficient and fair.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): organization formed in 1967 to promote regional development and trade in Southeast Asia.
Atheism: the belief that there is no God.
Atmosphere: a layer of gases surrounding the earth.
Autocracy: government in which a single individual possesses the power and authority to rule.
Avalanche: mass of ice, snow, or rock that slides down a mountainside.
Axis: an imaginary line that runs through the center of the earth between the North and South Poles.
Batik: method of dyeing clothes to produce beautiful patterns, developed in Indonesia and Malaysia
Bazaar: a traditional marketplace ranging from a single street of stalls to an entire district.
Bedouin: member of the nomadic desert people of North Africa and Southwest Africa.
Bilingual: speaking or using of two languages.
Bill Of Rights: the first 10 amendments made to the United States Constitution.
Biologist: scientist who studies plant and animal life.
Biomass: plant and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel.
Biosphere: the part of the earth where life exists.
Birthrate: the number of births per year for every 1,000 people
Black Market: any illegal market where scarce or illegal goods are sold, usually at high price.
Blizzard: a snowstorm with winds more than 35 miles per hour, temperatures below freezing, and visibility less than 500 feet for 3 hours or more.
Bolshevik: a revolutionary group of Russians led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Buffer State: neutral territory between rival powers.
Cabinet: heads of U.S. departments that advise the president.
Calligraphy: the art of beautiful handwriting
Campesino: farm workers; generally, people who live and work in rural areas.
Canopy: Top layer of a rain forest, where the tops of tall trees forms a continues layer of leaves.
Cartography: the science of mapmaking.
Cash Crop: farm crops grown to be sold or traded instead of used by the farm family.
Cataract: a large waterfall.
Caudillo: a Latin American political leader from the late 1800s on, often a military dictatorship.
Cereal: any grain, such as barley, oats, or wheat, grown for food
Chaparral: type of vegetation made up of dense forest of shrubs and short trees, common in Mediterranean climates.
Chernozem: rich, black topsoil, found in North European Plains, especially in Russia and the Ukraine.
Chinampas: floating Farming Island made by the Aztecs.
Chinook: seasonal warm winds that blows down the Rockies in late winter and early spring.
Chipko: India’s “tree-huger” movement that protects forests through reforestation and by supporting limited timber production
Chlorofluorocarbons: chemical substance, found mainly in liquid coolants, that damages the earth’s protective ozone layer.
City-State: in ancient Greece, independent community consisting of a city and the surrounding lands.
Clan: tribal community or large group of people related to one another.
Clear-Cutting: cutting down a whole forest when removing timber.
Climate: weather patterns typical for an area over a long period of time.
Cold War: the power struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II
Collective Farming: under communism, a large, state-owned farm on which farmers received wages plus a share of products and profits; also called a kolkhoz
Command Economy: is an economic system in which economic decisions about production and distribution are made by some central authority.
Command System: is an economic system controlled by the government.
Commercial Farming: farming organized as a business.
Commodity: goods produced for sale.
Commune: a collective farming community whose members who shares work and products.
Communism: society based on equality in which workers would control industrial production.
Condensation: the process of water vapor changing into liquid when warm air cools.
Coniferous: trees such as evergreens that have cones and needle-shaped leaves, and keep their foliage throughout the winter.
Conquistadors: Spanish term for “Conqueror,” referring to solders who conquered the Native Americans in Latin America.
Conservation Farming: a land-management technique that helps protects farmland.
Constitution: plan of government made for the United States in 1787.
Consumer Good: goods that directly satisfy human wants
Continental Drift: the theory that the continents were once joined and then slowly drifted apart.
Continental Shelf: the part of the continent that extends under water.
Cooperative: a voluntary organization whose members work together and shares expenses and profits.
Cordillera: parallel chains or ranges of mountains.
Coriolis Effect: an effect that causes prevailing winds to blow diagonally rather than along the strict north-south or east-west lines.
Cottage Industry: a business that employs workers in their homes.
Crusades: series of religious wars (A.D. 1100-1300) in which European Christians tried to retake Palestine from Muslim rule.
Culture Diffusion: the spread of new knowledge and skills from one culture to another.
Culture Hearth: a center where cultures developed and from which ideas and traditions spread outward.
Culture Region: division of the earth based on a variety of factors, including government, social groups, economic systems, language, or religion.
Cuneiform: Sumerian writing system using wedged shapes and symbols pressed into clay tablets.
Current: cold or warm stream of seawater that flows in the oceans, generally in a circular pattern.
Cyclone: storm with heavy rains and high winds that blow in a circular pattern around an area of low atmospheric pressure.
Czar: ruler of Russia until the 1917 revolution.
Daltis: the “oppressed”; in India, people assigned to the lowest social class.
Death Rate: the number of deaths per year for every 1,000 people
Deciduous: trees, usually broad leave such as oak and maple, which lose their leaves in autumn.
Deforestation: the loss or destruction of forests, mainly for logging or farming.
Delta: alluvial deposit at a river’s mouth that looks like the Greek letter delta.
Democracy: any system of government, in which leaders rule with the people consent
Desalination: the removal of salt from seawater to make it usable for drinking and farming.
Desertification: process in which arable land is turn into desert.
Developed Country: is a country that has a great deal of technology and manufacturing.
Developing Country: a country in the process of becoming industrialized.
Dharma: in Hinduism, a person’s moral duty, based on class distinction, which guides his or her life.
Dialect: local form of a language used in a particular place or by a certain group.
Dike: large banks of earth and stone that holds back water.
Dissident: a citizen who speaks out against government policies.
Divide: a high point or ridge that determines river flow.
Doldrums: a frequently windless area near the equator.
Domesticate: to adapt plants and animals from the wild to make them useful too people.
Dominion: a partially self-governing country with close ties to another country.
Doubling Time: the number of years it takes a population to double in size
Dry Farming: farming method used in dry regions in which the land is plowed and planted deeply to hold water in the soil.
Dynasty: a ruling house or continuing family of rulers, especially in China.
Dzong: a fortified monastery of Bhutan, South Asia.
E-Commerce: selling and buying on the Internet.
Economic Sanctions: trade restrictions.
Ecosystem: the complex community of interdependent living things in a given environment.
Ecotourism: tourism based on concern for the environment.
El Niňo: a periodic reversal of the oceans currents and water temperatures in the mid-pacific region.
Embargo: a ban on trade.
Endemic: native plant or animal species.
Enlightenment: a movement during the 1700’s, emphasizing the importance of reason and questioning traditional values
Environmentalist: a person who is actively concerned with the quality and protection of the environment.
Equinox: one of two days (about March 21 and September 23) on which the sun is directly above the Equator, making day and night equal in length.
Erosion: wearing away of the earth’s surface by wind, water flow, and glaciers.
Escarpment: steep cliff or slope between a higher and lower land surface.
Estuary: an area where the tide meets a river current.
Ethnic Cleansing: the expelling from a country or killing of rival ethnic groups.
Ethnic Diversity: differences among groups of people based on their origins, languages, customs, or beliefs.
Ethnic Group: group of people who share common ancestry, language, religion, customs, or combination of such characteristics
European Union (EU): an organization whose goal is to unite all of Europe so that goods, services and workers can move freely among member countries.
Eutrophication: process by which a body of water becomes rich in dissolved nutrients, leading to plant growth that depletes oxygen
Evaporation: process of converting into vapor
Export: commodities sent from one country to another for purposes of trade.
Extended Family: household made up of several generations of family members.
Extinction: the disappearance or end of a species of animal or plant.
Fall Line: a boundary in the eastern United States where the higher land of the Piedmont drop lowers to the Atlantic coastal plain.
Farm Cooperative: an origination in which farmers share in growing and selling farm production.
Fault: a crack or break in the earth’s crust.
Fauna: the animal life of a region.
Federal System: form of government in which powers in which powers are divided between the national government and the state or provincial government
Feudalism: in medieval Europe and Japan, system of Government in which powerful lords gave land to nobles in return for pledges of loyalty.
Fishery: areas (fresh water or saltwater) in which fish or sea animals are caught.
Fjord: long, steep-sided glacial valley filled by sea water.
Flora: the plant life of the region.
Foehn: dry winds for that blow from leeward sides of mountains, sometimes meeting snow causing avalanches; terms used mainly in Europe.
Fold: a bend in a layer of rock, sometimes caused by plate movement.
Formal Region: a region defined by a common characteristic, such as production of a product.
Free Port: port city, such as Singapore, can be imported stored and reshipped out without the payment of duties.
Free Trade: the removal of trade barriers so that goods flow freely between countries
Functional Region: a central point and the surrounding territory linked to it.
Futbol: Spanish term for Soccer.
Gaucho: the cowhands of Argentina and Uruguay.
Genetically Modified Food: a food whose genes have been altered to make them grow bigger or faster or more resistance to pests.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS): computer tools for processing and organizing details and satellite images with other pieces of information. Water Cycle:
Glaciation: the process whereby glaciers form and spread.
Glacier: large body of ice that moves across the earth.
Glasnost: Russian term for a new “openness,” part of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reform plans.
Global Warming: gradual warming of the earth and its atmosphere that may be caused in part by pollution and an increase in the greenhouse effect.
Glyph: picture writing carved in stone.
Good Friday Peace Agreement: paved the way for Protestant and Roman Catholic communities to share political power in Northern Ireland.
Green Revolution: programing, begun in the 1960s, to produce higher-yielding, more productive strains of wheat, rice, and other food crop.
Greenhouse Effect: the capacity of certain gases in the atmosphere to trap heat, thereby warming the earth.
Grid System: pattern formed as the lines of latitude and longitude across one another.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the value of goods and services created within a country in a year.
Groundwater: water within the earth that supplies wells and springs.
Guru: a teacher or spiritual guide.
Habitat: area with conditions suitable for certain plants or animals to live.
Haiku: form of Japanese poetry originally consisting of 17 syllables and three lines, often about nature.
Hajj: in Islam, the yearly pilgrimage to Makkah.
Harmattan: hot, dry air streams in from the Sahara on a northeast trade wind.
Headwaters: the source of river water.
Heavy Industry: the manufacturing of machinery and equipment needed for factories and mines.
Hemisphere: half of a sphere or globe, as in the earths Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
Hieroglyph: Egyptian writing system using pictures and symbols to represent words or sounds.
Holocaust: the mass killing of 6 million Jews by Germany’s Nazi leaders during World War II
Homogenous: of the same or similar kind of nature.
Human Geography: also called cultural geography; the study of human activities and their relationship to the cultural and physical environments
Human-Environment Interaction: the study of the interrelationship between people and their physical environment.
Hurricane: a large, powerful windstorm that forms over warm ocean waters.
Hydroelectric Power: electrical energy produced by falling water.
Hydrosphere: the water area of the earth, including oceans, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water.
Hypothesis: a scientific explanation for an event
Icon: religious image, usually including a picture of Jesus, Mary, or a saint, used mainly in an Orthodox Church.
Ideogram: a pictorial character or symbol that represents a specific meaning or ideas.
Immigration: the movement of people into one country to another.
Impressionist: artistic style that developed in Europe in the late 1800’s and tried to show the show natural appearance of objects with jabs or strokes of color.
Indigenous: Native to a place.
Industrial Capitalism: an economic in which business leaders use profit to expand their companies.
Industrialization: transformation from an agricultural society to one based on industry.
Infrastructure: the basic urban necessities like streets and utilities.
Insular: constituting an island, as in Java.
Intelligentsia: intellectual elite.
Interdependent: relying on one another for goods, services, and ideas.
Jai Alai: traditional hand-ball type game popular with Mexicans and Cubans.
Japan Current: a warm-water ocean current that adds moisture to the winter monsoons.
Jati: in traditional Hinduism society, a social group that defines family’s occupation and social standings.
Jazz: musical form that developed in the United States in the early 1900’s, blending African rhythms and European harmonies.
Jute: plant fiber used to make string and cloth.
Karma: in Hindu belief, the sum of good and bad actions in one’s present and past lives.
Kolkhoz: in the Soviet Union, a small farm worked my farmers who shared in the farm’s production and profits.
Kum: term for deserts in Central Asia
Lama: Buddhist religious leader.
Language family: group of related languages that have all developed from one earlier language
Latifundia: in Latin America, larger agricultural estates owned by families or corporation.
Leach: to wash nutrients out of the soil.
Leeward: facing away from the direction from which the wind is blowing
Light Industry: manufacturing aimed at making consumer goods such as textiles or food processing rather than heavy machinery.
Lingua France: a common language used among people with different native languages.
Literacy Rate: the percentage of people in a given place that can read or write.
Lithosphere: surface land areas of the earth’s crust, including continents and ocean basins.
Llano: fertile plains in inland areas of Columbia and Venezuela.
Location: a specific place on the earth.
Lode: deposit of minerals.
Loess: fine, yellowish-brown topsoil made up of particles of silt and clay, usually carried by the wind.
Longhouse: in rural areas of Indonesia and Malaysia, a large, elevated building where people from several related families live.
Maastricht Treaty: a 1992 meeting of European governments in Maastricht, the Netherlands, that formed the European Union.
Magma: molten rock that is pushed up from the earth’s mantle.
Malnutrition: faulty or inadequate nutrition.
Mantel: thick middle layer of the earth’s interior structure, consisting of dense, hot rock.
Mantra: in Hinduism, a sacred word or phrase repeated in prayers and chants.
Maquiladora: in Mexico, manufacturing plants set up by foreign firms.
Maritime: concerned with travel or shipping by sea.
Market Economy: an economic system based on free enterprise, in which businesses are privately owned, and production and prices are determined by supply and demand
Mass Culture: popular culture spread by media such as television and the radio.
Megacity: a “super-city” that is made up of several large and small cities such as the area between Boston and Washington.
Megalopolis: a “super-city” that is made up of several large and small cities such as the area between Boston and Washington, DC
Melt water: water formed by melting snow and ice.
Merchant Marine: a country’s fleet of ships that engage in commerce or trade.
Meteorology: the study of water and weather forecasting.
Metropolitan Area: region that includes a central city and it surrounding suburbs.
Mica: silicate mineral that readily splits into thin, shiny sheets.
Middle Ages: the period of European history from about A.D. 500 to about 1500 A.D.
Migration: the movement of people from place to place.
Culture: the way of life of a group of people who share beliefs are similar customs.
Minifundia: in Latin America, small farms that produce food chiefly for family use.
Mistral: strong northerly wind from Alps that can bring cold air to southern France.
Mixed Economy: an economy in which the government supports and regulates enterprise through decisions that affect the market place.
Mixed Farming: raising several kinds of crops and livestock on the same farm.
Mixed Forest: forest with both coniferous and deciduous trees
Mobility: ability to move from one place to another.
Monopoly: total control of a type of industry by one person or one company.
Monotheism: belief in one God.
Monsoon: in Asia, seasonal wind that brings warm, moist air from the oceans in summer and cold, dry air from inland in winter.
Moraine: piles of rocky debris left by melting glaciers.
Mosaic: picture or design made up with small pieces of colored stone, glass, shells of tiles.
Mosque: is Islam, a house of public worship.
Movement: ongoing movement of people, goods, and ideas.
Mural: wall painting.
Nationalism: belief in the right of each people to be an independent nation.
Nationality: large, distinct ethnic groups within a country.
Nationalize: to place a company or industry under government control.
Native American: North American’s first immigrants who probably moved into the region from Asia thousands of years ago.
Natural Increase: the growth rate of a population; the difference between birthrate and death rate.
Natural Resource: substance from the earth that is not made by people but can be used by them.
Natural Vegetation: plant life that grows in a certain area if people have not changed the environment.
Nirvana: in Buddhism, ultimate state of peace and insight toward which people strive.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): trade agreements made in the 1994 by Canada, the United States, and Mexico
Nuclear Family: family group made up of husband, wife and children.
Nuclear Proliferation: the spreading development of nuclear arms.
Nuclear Waste: the by-product of producing nuclear power.
Oasis: small area in a desert where water and vegetation are found.
Oligarchy: system of government in which a small group holds power
Oral Tradition: stories passed down for generation to generation by word of mouth.
Organic Farming: the use of natural substances rather than chemical fertilizers and pesticides to enrich the soil and grow crops.
Paddy: flooded field in which rice is grown.
Pagoda: a style of architecture most often found in traditional East Asia buildings, marked by gracefully curved tile roofs in the tower style.
Pampa: grassy, treeless plains of South America.
Parliament: in Canada, national legislature made up of Senate and the House of Commons
Pastoralism: the raising of livestock
Patios: dialects that blend elements of indigenous, European, African, and Asian languages.
Patriarch: the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Patriotism: love and devotion for one’s country.
Perceptual Region: a region defined by popular feelings and images rather than by objective data.
Perestroika: in Russia, “restructuring”; part of Gorbachev’s plans for reforming Soviet government.
Permafrost: permanently frozen layer of soil beneath the earth’s surface of the ground.
Pesticide: chemical used to kill insects, rodents, and other pests.
Petrochemical: chemical product derived from petroleum or natural gas.
Phosphate: natural mineral containing chemicals compounds often used in fertilizer
Physical Geography: the studies of Earth’s physical features.
Pipeline: a long network of underground and aboveground pipes.
Place: a particular space with physical and human meaning
Plate Tectonics: the terms scientists use to describe the activities of continental drift and magma flow which create many of Earth’s physical features.
Poaching: The illegal hunting of protected animals.
Pogrom: in czarist Russia, an attack on Jews carried out by government troops or officials.
Polder: low-laying areas from which seawater has been drained to create new farmlands.
Pollution: the existence of impure, unclean, or poisonous substances in the air, water, or land
Population Density: the average number of people in a square mile or square kilometer
Population Distribution: the pattern of population in a country, a continent, or the world
Post-Industrial: an economy with less emphasis on heavy industry and manufacturing and more emphasis on services and technology.
Prairie: an inland grassland area
Precipitation: moisture that falls to earth’s surface as rain, sleet, hail. Or snow
Prevailing Wind: wind in a region that blows in a fairly constant directional pattern.
Primate City: a city that dominates a countries economy, culture, and government, and which the population is concentrated usually the capital.
Privatization: a change to private ownership of state-owned companies and industries.
Prophet: person believed to be a messenger from God.
Quant: underground canal used in water systems of ancient Persians.
Quipu: knotted cords of various lengths and colors used by the Inca to keep financial records.
Radioactive Material: material contained by residue from the generation of nuclear energy.
Rain Shadow: dry area found on the lee ward area of a mountain range.
Raj: Hindu word for empires.
Realism: Artistic style portraying everyday life that developed in Europe during the mid-1800s.
Reforestation: replanting young trees or seeds on lands where trees have been cut down or destroyed.
Reformation: religious movement that began in Germany in the 1400’s, leading to the establishment to the Protestants church.
Refugee: one how flees his or her home for safety.
Region: places united by specific characteristics
Reincarnation: In Hindu belief, being reborn repeatedly in different forms, until one over comes earthly desires.
Relative Location: location in relation to other places.
Renaissance: in Europe, a 300-year period of renewed interest in classical learning and arts, beginning in the 1300’s.
Reparations: a payment for damages
Republic: form of government without a monarch in which the people elect their officials.
Retooling: converting old factories for use in new industries.
Revolution: in astronomy, the earths yearly trip around the sun, taking 365 1/4th days.
Rift Valley: a crack in the earth’s surface created by shifting tectonic plates.
Romanticism: artistic style emphasizing individual emotions that developed in Europe in the late 1700s and early 1800s as a reaction to industrialization.
Russification: in nineteenth-century Russia, a government program that required everyone in the empire to speak Russian and to become a Christian.
Sadhu: a Hindu hermit or holy man.
Samurai: in medieval Japan, a class of professional soldiers who lived by a strict code of personal honor and loyalty to a noble.
Sanitation: disposal of waist products
Satellite: a country controlled by another country, nobility Eastern European countries controlled by the Soviet Union by the end of World War II.
Savanna: tropical grassland that contains scattered trees.
Sedentary Farming: farming carried on at permanent settlements.
Serf: laborer obligated to remain on the land where he or she works.
Service Center: convenient business location for rural dwellers
Service Industry: a business that provides a service instead of making goods.
Shamanism: belief in a leader who can communicate with spirits
Shantytown: makeshift communities of the edge of cities.
Shifting Cultivation: method in which farmers move every few years to find better soil.
Shifting Farming: is the method in which farmers move every few years to find better soil.
Shogun: military ruler in medieval Japan
Sickle: a large, curved knife with a handle, used to cut grass or tall grains.
Sirocco: hot desert wind that can blow air and dust from North Africa to Western Europe’s Mediterranean coast.
Slash-and-Burn Farming: traditional farming method in which all trees in the area are cut down and burned to add nutrients to the soil.
Smog: haze caused by the interaction of ultraviolet solar radiation with chemical fumes from automobile exhaust and other pollution sources.
Socialism: political philosophy in which the government owns the means of production.
Socialist Realism: realistic style of art and literature that glorified Soviet ideals and goals.
Socioeconomic Status: level of income and education.
Solstice: one of two days (about June 21 and December 22) on which the sun’s rays strike directly on the Tropic of Cancer or tropic of Capricorn, marking the beginning of summer and Winter.
Sovereignty: self-rule
Sovkhoz: in the Soviet Union, a large farm owned and run by the stae.
Sphere of Influence: area of a country in which a foreign power has political or economic control.
Spreading: a process by which new land is created when sea plates pull apart and magma wells up between the plates.
State Farming: under communism, a state-owned farm managed by state officials.
Steppe: Wide grassy, plains of Eurasia, also, similar semiarid climate regions elsewhere.
Stupa: a dome-shaped structure that serves as Buddhist shrine.
Subcontinent: large landmass that is part of a continent but still distinct from it such as India.
Subduction: a process by which mountains can form as sea plates dive beneath continental plates.
Subsistence Crop: producing just enough crops for a family of village to survive.
Subsistence Farming: producing just enough food for a family or a village to survive.
Suburb: outlying communities around a city.
Sunbelt: mild climate region, southern United States
Supercells: violent thunderstorms that can spawn tornadoes.
Sustainable Development: technological and economic growth that does not deplete the human and natural resources of a given area.
Syncretism: a blending or beliefs and practices from deferent religions in to one faith.
Taiga: Russian term for the vast subarctic forest, mostly evergreens, that covers much of Russia and Siberia
Tariff: a tax on imports and exports.
Temperature: degree of hotness or coldness measured on a set scale, such as Fahrenheit, Celsius.
Tierra Caliente: Spanish term for “hot land”; the lowest altitude zone of Latin American High land climates.
Tierra Fria: Spanish term for “cold land”; the highest altitude zone of Latin American High land climates.
Tierra Templada: Spanish term for “temperate land”; the middle altitude zone of Latin American High land climates.
Timberline: elevation above which it is too cold for trees to grow.
Trade Deficit: spending more money on imports than earning on exports.
Trade Surplus: earning more money from exports than spending on imports.
Traditional Economy: a system in which tradition and custom control all economic activities; exists in only a few parts of the world today.
Tributary: smaller river or stream that feeds into a larger river.
Tsunami: Japanese term used for a huge sea waves caused by an undersea earthquake.
Tundra: vast, treeless plains in cold northern climates, characterized by permafrost and small, low plants, such as mosses and shrubs.
Typhoon: a violent tropical storm that forms in the Pacific Ocean, usually in late summer.
Underground Railroad: an informational network of safe houses, in the United States, that helped thousands of enslaved people escaped to freedom
Unitary System: a government in which all key powers are given to the national or central government
Universal Suffrage: equal voting rights for all adult citizens of a nation.
Urbanization: the movement of people from rural areas into cities.
Viceroy: represented of their Spanish monarch appointed to enforce law in colonial Latin America.
Wadi: in the desert, a streambed that is dry except during a heavy rain.
Wat: a temple in Southwest Asia.
Weather: condition of the atmosphere in one place during a short period of time.
Welfare State: nation in which the government assumes major responsibility for the people’s welfare in areas such as health and education.
Windward: facing in the direction from which the wind is blowing
World Trade Organization (WTO): an international body that oversees trade agreements and settles trade disputes among countries.
Ziggurat: large step-like temple of mud brick built in ancient Mesopotamia.