KS3 Geography key terms

135 terms with short definitions you can learn for the exam. Type to filter the list.

Key terms glossary 119

Abrasion: Erosion where rocks carried by rivers, waves or ice scrape and wear away the land.
Adaptation (climate): Changing the way we live to cope with the effects of climate change, such as building flood defences.
Aerial photograph: A photo taken from the air. Vertical photos look straight down; oblique photos are taken at an angle.
Aid: Help given by one country or organisation to another, such as money, food, equipment or skills.
Arete: A sharp, narrow ridge between two corries, formed by glacial erosion. Striding Edge in the Lake District is an example.
Attrition: Erosion where rocks carried by water knock into each other and become smaller and rounder.
Biodiversity: The variety of plants and animals living in an area.
Biome: A large ecosystem covering a big area of the world, such as tropical rainforest or hot desert.
Birth rate: The number of live births per 1,000 people per year.
Brownfield site: Land that has been built on before and can be reused.
Carbon footprint: The amount of carbon dioxide released because of a person's or group's activities.
Cave, arch, stack, stump: The order in which a headland is eroded: a crack becomes a cave, then an arch, then a stack, then a stump.
Choropleth map: A map that shades areas in different colours or shades to show different values.
Climate: The average weather of a place, usually measured over 30 years.
Climate change: A long-term change in the Earth's climate. Today's warming is mainly caused by burning fossil fuels.
Condensation: When water vapour cools and turns into liquid water droplets, forming clouds.
Conservative plate boundary: Where two plates slide past each other. It causes earthquakes but no volcanoes, as on the San Andreas Fault.
Constructive plate boundary: Where two plates move apart and magma rises to make new crust, as in Iceland.
Continent: One of the seven large land masses: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Oceania.
Contour line: A line on a map joining places of the same height above sea level. Close lines mean steep land.
Convectional rainfall: Rain caused when the sun heats the ground, warm air rises, cools and condenses.
Core: The centre of the Earth: a liquid outer core and a solid inner core, mostly iron and nickel.
Corrie: A deep, armchair-shaped hollow on a mountainside where a glacier formed.
Crust: The thin, rocky outer layer of the Earth. Oceanic crust is thin and dense; continental crust is thicker and lighter.
Death rate: The number of deaths per 1,000 people per year.
Deforestation: Cutting down or removing forest.
Deposition: When a river, the sea, wind or ice drops the material it was carrying.
Desertification: When land in dry areas turns into desert, often because of overgrazing, cutting trees and drought.
Destructive plate boundary: Where an oceanic plate sinks under another plate. It causes explosive volcanoes and strong earthquakes.
Development: Improving people's quality of life, through wealth, health, education and freedom.
Discharge: The volume of water flowing in a river per second, measured in cubic metres per second (cumecs).
Drainage basin: The area of land drained by a river and its tributaries.
Earthquake: A sudden shaking of the ground caused by movement of the Earth's plates.
Ecosystem: A community of living things and their non-living environment, such as soil, water and climate.
Ecosystem services: Benefits people get from nature, such as clean water, pollination, food and flood control.
Ecotourism: Tourism that protects the environment and benefits local people.
Epicentre: The point on the ground directly above the focus of an earthquake.
Equator: The imaginary line around the middle of the Earth at 0 degrees latitude.
Erosion: The wearing away and removal of rock and soil by water, ice, wind or waves.
Evaporation: When liquid water is heated and turns into water vapour.
Fair trade: Trade that pays producers in poorer countries a fair price and gives them better working conditions.
Fieldwork: Collecting data or information outside the classroom.
Floodplain: The flat land on either side of a river that floods when the river overflows.
Focus: The point underground where an earthquake starts.
Fold mountains: Mountains formed when two plates collide and push rock upwards, such as the Himalayas.
Fossil fuel: Coal, oil or gas, formed from ancient plants and animals. They release carbon dioxide when burned.
Freeze-thaw weathering: Water gets into cracks, freezes and expands, then thaws. Repeated many times, it breaks the rock apart.
Frontal rainfall: Rain caused when warm air meets cold air and is forced to rise over it.
GIS: Geographical Information Systems: computer maps that show data in layers to reveal patterns.
Glacier: A large, slow-moving mass of ice.
Global warming: The rise in the Earth's average temperature.
GNI per capita: Gross national income per person: a country's income divided by its population.
Greenhouse effect: Gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun and keep the Earth warm. Extra gases trap more heat.
Grid reference: Numbers that give a location on a map: four figures for a square, six figures for a point.
Groundwater: Water stored underground in soil and rocks.
HDI: Human Development Index: a measure of development that combines life expectancy, education and income, from 0 to 1.
Headland: A piece of hard rock sticking out into the sea, with bays on either side.
Hydraulic action: Erosion by the force of water hitting the bed and banks, or waves forcing air into cracks.
Igneous rock: Rock formed when magma or lava cools and hardens, such as granite and basalt.
Infant mortality: The number of babies who die before their first birthday, per 1,000 live births.
Infiltration: When water soaks into the soil.
Informal settlement: An area of homes built without permission, often lacking clean water and sanitation, such as Kibera or Dharavi.
Interception: When rain is caught by plants and trees before it reaches the ground.
Latitude: How far north or south of the Equator a place is, in degrees.
Lava: Magma that has reached the Earth's surface.
Levee: A raised bank along a river, formed naturally by deposition during floods or built by people.
Life expectancy: The average number of years a person can expect to live.
Longitude: How far east or west of the Prime Meridian a place is, in degrees.
Longshore drift: The movement of sand and pebbles along a coast by waves that hit the beach at an angle.
Magma: Melted rock beneath the Earth's surface.
Mantle: The thick layer of hot, mostly solid rock between the crust and the core. It flows very slowly.
Meander: A bend in a river.
Megacity: A city with more than 10 million people.
Metamorphic rock: Rock changed by heat and pressure, such as marble (from limestone) and slate (from mudstone).
Migration: The movement of people from one place to live in another.
Mitigation: Actions to reduce the causes of climate change, such as using renewable energy.
Monsoon: A seasonal change in wind direction that brings a very wet season, as in India from about June to September.
Moraine: Rocks and sediment deposited by a glacier.
Natural increase: The birth rate minus the death rate.
Non-renewable resource: A resource that will run out, such as coal, oil or gas.
Ordnance Survey (OS): Great Britain's national mapping agency, which makes detailed maps.
Ox-bow lake: A horseshoe-shaped lake formed when a meander is cut off from the river.
Plate tectonics: The theory that the Earth's crust is broken into plates that move slowly on the mantle.
Population density: The number of people living in an area, usually per square kilometre.
Population distribution: How people are spread out across an area.
Population pyramid: A graph showing the age and sex structure of a population.
Precipitation: Water falling from clouds as rain, snow, sleet or hail.
Primary sector: Jobs that take raw materials from the land or sea, such as farming, fishing and mining.
Prime Meridian: The line of 0 degrees longitude, which passes through Greenwich in London.
Pull factor: Something that attracts people to a new place, such as jobs or better services.
Push factor: Something that makes people want to leave a place, such as poverty or conflict.
Quality of life: How good people's lives are, including health, housing, safety and happiness.
Quaternary sector: Jobs in research, information and communication technology, and development of new ideas.
Relief: The height and shape of the land.
Relief rainfall: Rain caused when moist air is forced to rise over hills or mountains.
Renewable resource: A resource that will not run out if managed well, such as wind, solar or water power.
Ring of Fire: The chain of volcanoes and earthquake zones around the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Rock cycle: The way rocks slowly change from one type to another over millions of years.
Scale: The link between distance on a map and on the ground. On a 1:50,000 map, 2 cm equals 1 km.
Secondary sector: Jobs that make things from raw materials, such as manufacturing and building.
Sedimentary rock: Rock made of layers of sediment pressed together, often containing fossils, such as sandstone and chalk.
Settlement: A place where people live, from a hamlet to a megacity.
Soil erosion: The removal of soil by wind or water, often faster when plants are cleared.
Spit: A long, narrow ridge of sand or shingle that sticks out into the sea, formed by longshore drift where the coast changes direction.
Surface runoff: Water flowing over the surface of the ground.
Sustainable: Meeting the needs of people today without harming the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
Tertiary sector: Jobs that provide services, such as teaching, health care, retail and tourism.
Throughflow: Water moving sideways through the soil towards a river.
Transpiration: Water lost from plants' leaves as vapour.
Tributary: A smaller river that joins a larger one.
U-shaped valley: A wide, steep-sided, flat-floored valley carved by a glacier.
Urbanisation: An increase in the share of people living in towns and cities.
V-shaped valley: A narrow, steep-sided valley cut by a river in its upper course.
Volcano: An opening in the Earth's crust where magma erupts as lava, ash and gas.
Water cycle: The constant movement of water between the sea, the air and the land.
Waterfall: Where a river drops over a step of hard rock above softer rock.
Watershed: The edge of a drainage basin, usually high ground.
Weather: The day-to-day condition of the atmosphere: temperature, rainfall, wind and cloud.
Weathering: The breaking down of rock in place by weather, chemicals or living things.

Map skills, numbers and facts to know 16

Compass directions: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW. Wind direction is named after where the wind comes FROM.
Continents and oceans: Seven continents: Asia is the largest. Five oceans: the Pacific is the largest.
Four-figure grid reference: Read the easting (along the bottom) first, then the northing (up the side), using the lines at the bottom-left corner of the square. 'Along the corridor, then up the stairs.'
Highest mountain: Mount Everest, 8,849 m, in the Himalayas on the border of Nepal and China.
Largest country: Russia, by area. India has had the largest population since 2023.
Largest hot desert: The Sahara in North Africa. Antarctica is the largest desert of all, because it gets so little precipitation.
Latitude and longitude: Give latitude (north or south of the Equator) first, then longitude (east or west of the Prime Meridian), in degrees.
Mean, median, mode, range: Mean: total / number of values. Median: the middle value in order. Mode: the most common. Range: largest minus smallest.
Natural increase: Natural increase = birth rate minus death rate, per 1,000 people per year.
Percentage change: Percentage change = (new value minus old value) / old value x 100.
Population density: Population density = number of people / area. Unit: people per km squared.
Scale 1:25,000: 1 cm on the map = 250 m on the ground, so 4 cm = 1 km. Each grid square is still 1 km across.
Scale 1:50,000: 1 cm on the map = 50,000 cm = 500 m on the ground, so 2 cm = 1 km. Each grid square is 1 km across.
Six-figure grid reference: Split the square into tenths each way. Add the tenths along to the easting and the tenths up to the northing: 245 683. It locates a point to the nearest 100 metres.
UK facts: Ben Nevis (1,345 m) is the highest mountain; the River Severn is the longest river. The UK has a temperate maritime climate.
World population: Passed 8 billion in 2022, according to the United Nations.

Practise Geography free Revision checklist