72 of the Geography glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
An informal forum of seven major high-income democracies (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada, with the EU) whose leaders co-ordinate economic and political policy; the G8 while Russia was a member (1998–2014).
A forum of 19 countries, the European Union and the African Union, including the major high-income and emerging economies, which produces about 85% of world GDP and co-ordinates global economic policy.
A wire-mesh cage filled with stones, stacked to form a wall or slope that absorbs wave energy; a cheap but short-lived coastal defence.
An area of an ocean gyre where floating plastic and other debris carried by surface currents accumulates in high concentrations.
A residential area enclosed by walls or fences, with controlled entrances, private security and often its own services, that restricts access to residents and their guests.
A situation in which women and men have equal rights, opportunities, resources and power in all areas of life, including education, work, health, politics and the family.
The difference between women and men farmers in access to land, credit, inputs, technology, advice and markets, and the resulting difference in their yields and incomes.
A composite index published by the UNDP that measures inequality between women and men in reproductive health, empowerment and labour market participation, from 0 (equality) to 1 (extreme inequality).
A technique, such as CRISPR, that changes an organism’s DNA at a precise location, usually by altering or switching off existing genes rather than adding genes from another species.
A plant, animal or micro-organism whose genetic material has been altered by genetic engineering, for example by inserting a gene from another species, to give it a new trait.
The movement of higher-income households into a low-income, often inner-city area, renovating housing and changing its social character, which usually raises property values and displaces existing residents.
Deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system to reduce global warming, either by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere or by reflecting more sunlight back to space.
The separation of a place from other places by distance or physical barriers such as oceans, mountains, deserts or ice, which increases the cost and difficulty of interaction.
A hazard caused by processes in the solid Earth: earthquakes, volcanic activity and mass movements.
Strained relations between states or other political actors over territory, resources, security, trade routes or influence, which can escalate into conflict.
The study of how geographical factors such as location, territory, borders and natural resources shape political power and relations between states.
A measure of inequality from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (maximum inequality): the area between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve divided by the total area under the line.
A sudden release of water from a lake dammed by a glacier or moraine when the dam is overtopped or breached, often after an ice or rock avalanche falls into the lake.
A long cold phase within an ice age, lasting tens of thousands of years, during which global temperatures fall, ice sheets and glaciers advance over large areas and sea level falls.
A glacier viewed as an open system, with inputs of snowfall, avalanches and wind-blown snow, stores of snow, firn and ice, transfers by ice flow, and outputs by melting, sublimation and calving.
A deep, straight valley with steep sides and a wide, flat floor, formed when a glacier deepens, widens and straightens a former river valley.
A large mass of ice, formed on land from compacted and recrystallised snow, that moves slowly downslope or outwards under its own weight.
The difference between a glacier's accumulation and ablation over a year, usually in metres of water equivalent; a positive balance leads to advance, a negative balance to thinning and retreat.
The shrinking of a glacier, with its front moving back up its valley, when melting and calving exceed the accumulation of new snow over a period of years.
The slow rise of the Earth’s crust after the melting of an ice sheet that had pressed it down, continuing for thousands of years.
An agreement by Commonwealth heads of government in 1977 to discourage sporting contact and competition with South Africa, as part of the campaign against apartheid.
A city that is a major node of the global economy, concentrating the headquarters of transnational corporations, financial markets and advanced business services, with strong international connections.
A long-term change in the Earth’s climate, including temperature, precipitation, ice cover and extreme events, now driven mainly by human greenhouse gas emissions; global warming is the rise in global mean surface temperature within it.
An area or resource outside the jurisdiction of any single state, such as the high seas, the atmosphere or Antarctica, that is shared by all.
A reduction in the solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface, caused by aerosols from volcanic eruptions and air pollution that reflect sunlight and make clouds brighter.
The movement of goods, services, capital, people, information or ideas across international borders, between places that are linked by networks.
A composite index by Economist Impact scoring the food security of 113 countries from 0 to 100 (higher is better) on affordability, availability, quality and safety, and sustainability and adaptation.
A unit of area representing one hectare of land or sea with world-average biological productivity, used to express ecological footprints and biocapacity.
A composite index measuring hunger in a country on a 0–100 scale, where lower is better, by combining undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and under-five mortality.
The exchanges and connections between places and peoples worldwide, including flows of goods, services, capital, people, information and ideas, and political and cultural links.
An internationally agreed minimum rate of tax, set at 15% under the OECD/G20 Pillar Two rules, on the profits of large multinational companies in every country where they operate.
A broad term for the wealthier, mainly high-income countries of North America, Europe, East Asia and Australasia, describing their shared economic and political position rather than their location.
The global pattern of the thermohaline circulation, in which dense water sinks in the North Atlantic and around Antarctica, flows through the deep ocean and returns as surface currents in about 1,000 years.
The relocation of manufacturing, and later some services, from high-income countries in Europe and North America to lower-cost countries, especially in East and South-East Asia, since the 1970s.
A broad term for the lower-income countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania, many of them former colonies, describing their shared economic and political position in the world.
A measure of how much heat a mass of a greenhouse gas traps over a set period, usually 100 years, compared with the same mass of carbon dioxide, which has a value of 1.
The growing interconnection and interdependence of places, economies and societies around the world through flows of goods, services, capital, people, information and ideas.
A composite measure that combines several indicators of international flows and connections into a single score, used to compare how far countries participate in global interactions.
The adaptation of a global product, service or brand to local cultures, tastes, religions and regulations so that it sells in many different places.
A variety of rice genetically modified to produce beta-carotene, a source of vitamin A, intended to reduce vitamin A deficiency where rice is the staple food.
The ways in which a society is managed and decisions are made and enforced, by governments and other institutions, including how laws are applied and how accountable those in power are.
The use of fixed satellite navigation (GNSS) receivers on a volcano or fault to measure ground movement of a few millimetres, such as the uplift caused by magma collecting below.
An African Union initiative adopted in 2007 to restore degraded land across the Sahel from Senegal to Djibouti, aiming to restore 100 million hectares by 2030.
A ring of protected open land around a city in which new building is strictly limited, to prevent urban sprawl and protect the countryside.
A planned network of natural and semi-natural features in a city, such as parks, street trees, green roofs, wetlands and rivers, managed to provide cooling, flood control, cleaner air and habitats.
The spread, from the 1960s, of high-yielding varieties of cereals together with irrigation, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, which greatly increased crop yields in many parts of Asia and Latin America.
A roof partly or wholly covered with vegetation and a growing medium, which insulates the building, absorbs rainfall and cools the surface through evapotranspiration.
The part of a water footprint made up of rainwater stored in the soil and used by plants, then lost through evapotranspiration.
A form of foreign direct investment in which a firm builds a new facility, such as a factory, office or mine, in another country rather than buying an existing one.
Land that has not previously been built on, such as farmland or open countryside, often at the edge of an urban area.
The natural process by which gases in the atmosphere absorb longwave radiation from the Earth’s surface and re-emit part of it downwards, keeping the surface about 33 °C warmer than it would otherwise be.
A gas in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits longwave (infrared) radiation, such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFCs.
Misleading claims or marketing that make a company, product or activity appear more environmentally friendly than it really is.
A more stable sand dune further inland, darkened by humus and colonised by mosses, lichens and other plants, with more acidic soil than younger dunes.
The part of a water footprint equal to the volume of freshwater needed to dilute the pollutants released in making a product to an agreed water quality standard.
Lightly used household wastewater from sinks, baths, showers and washing machines, but not toilets, which can be reused for purposes such as flushing or irrigation.
A set of numbers locating a square or point on a map grid, easting before northing: four figures identify a 1 km square, six figures a point to the nearest 100 m.
A model (1980) of the Latin American city with a central business district and commercial spine lined by an elite sector, surrounded by zones of maturity, in situ accretion and peripheral squatter settlements.
The total value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders in one year, regardless of who owns the businesses producing them.
The total income earned by a country’s residents and businesses in a year, including income from abroad and excluding income paid to non-residents; GNI per capita divides it by the population.
The increase in the strength of earthquake shaking where seismic waves pass from hard rock into soft sediments.
Water stored in the pore spaces and cracks of rocks and sediments below the water table; its slow movement through rock towards rivers is groundwater flow.
A long-term fall in the volume of groundwater stored in an aquifer, caused when abstraction exceeds recharge.
A barrier built at right angles to the shoreline to trap sediment carried by longshore drift and so build up a wider beach.
A warm, fast ocean current flowing from the Gulf of Mexico along North America and across the Atlantic as the North Atlantic Drift, carrying heat towards north-west Europe.
The rule that, in a region, the number of earthquakes falls by about ten times for each one-unit rise in magnitude.
A large, roughly circular system of surface ocean currents in an ocean basin, driven by prevailing winds and the Coriolis effect; clockwise in the northern hemisphere, anticlockwise in the southern.