topography

UK/təˈpɒɡɹəfi/US/təˈpɑɡɹəfi/

nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,405 of 15,258mostly written

Topography is the shape and features of the land in a place. The topography of the valley.

It decides where roads and towns can go, which is why so many follow rivers. Topography is shown by contour lines, and reading them is the whole skill of a map.

Definitions of topography

1nountopographyThe shape and features of the land in a place.C2
“The topography made a bypass impossible on either side.”

topography is a shape.

Remember it

The Greek behind it is to write down a place. Topography is the land written out: every hill and every dip of it.

hooks ontowrite

Where it comes from

Greek topographia is topos, a place, plus graphein, to write.

Ancient Greek
τοπογραφία
Latin
topographia
Middle English
topographye
English, today
topography

Built from

τόπος · Ancient Greek — place
γράφω · Ancient Greek — to write

First attested in 1432. From Middle English topographye, from Latin topographia, from Ancient Greek τοπογραφία, from τόπος (“place”) + γράφω (“to write”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

topography in the wild

Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite.
Karst
Despite modern computer-based research, the ocean seabed in many locations is less mapped than the topography of Mars.
Bathymetry
The main purpose of measuring ocean surface topography is to understand the large-scale ocean circulation.
Ocean surface topography
Such topography consists of shallow, rimless depressions with scalloped edges, commonly referred to as "scalloped depressions" or simply "scallops".
Scalloped topography
The details on the formation of scalloped topography still being worked out.
Scalloped topography

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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