Geographical Names

Biographical Names Index   The English Language in the Dictionary

Entries in this section give basic information about the countries of the world and their most important regions, cities, and physical features.  The information includes spelling, syllabication, and pronunciation of the name, nature of the feature, its location, and for the more important entries statistical data.  Cities in the United States having 16,500 or more inhabitants at the 1980 census and incorporated places in Canada having 16,500 or more inhabitants at the 1976 census have been included.

This section complements the A-Z vocabulary by entering many derivative forms:

Ab·ys·sin·ia . . . -- Ab·ys·sin·ian . . . adj or n
Cos·ta Ri·ca . . . -- Cos·ta Ri·can . . . adj or n
Mo·na·co . . . -- Mo·na·can . . . adj or n -- Mon·e·gasque . . . adj or n

The abbreviations used are listed in one or both of the Abbreviations sections.  The letters N, E, S, and W when not followed by a period indicate direction and are not part of a place-name; thus N Vietnam indicates northern Vietnam and not North Vietnam.  The symbol _* denotes a capital.  Areas, altitudes, and lengths are given first in conventional units with metric equivalents in parenthesis.

The Wade-Giles transliteration of People's Republic of China place-names is the first spelling shown; the Pinyin transliteration is second.  Where no variant is given, the two spellings are identical.