This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I would welcome new additions. At a certain point in compiling a list, you forget what you have or haven't added, so I wouldn't be surprised if an obvious term has been left off. Please let me know of any additions, and I'll happily add them.
I've also added a "base type" for quick reference. This is by no means an authoritative typing, merely a quick reference to what its base form could be centered on, shot from the hip. Barrens, for example, are rooted in colorless (ie: Ash Barrens), but one could easily make Pine Barrens in green, Rocky Barrens in red, or Harsh Barrens in black. Likewise, Valleys are inherently red from their mountainous surroundings, but can easily have additional colors added.
This list is for mostly natural land formations, and does not include buildings, structures, etc. We can add an additional list for such if there's interest.
| Name | Description | BaseType |
|---|---|---|
| Abyss | a deep, immeasurable space, gulf, or cavity; vast chasm. | |
| Ait | small island, especially in a river | |
| Alcove | a steep-sided hollow in the side of an exposed rock face or cliff | |
| Anchorage | that portion of a harbor or area outside a harbor suitable for anchoring or in which ships are permitted to anchor | |
| Antre | a cavern; cave | |
| Archipelago | a chain, cluster, or collection of islands | |
| Arete | Narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys | |
| Arroyo | Dry creek or stream bed with flow after rain | |
| Atoll | a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon | |
| Ayre | shingle beach | |
| Badlands | Type of heavily eroded terrain | |
| Barrens | level or slightly rolling land, usually with a sandy soil and few trees, and relatively infertile. | |
| Basin | a partially enclosed, sheltered area along a shore. a hollow place containing water | |
| Bay | a body of water forming an indentation of the shoreline, larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf | |
| Bayou | a marshy arm, inlet, or outlet of a lake, river, etc., usually sluggish or stagnant | |
| Beach | an expanse of sand or pebbles along a shore. | |
| Beach Cusps | Shoreline formations made up of various grades of sediment in an arc pattern | |
| Beck | a small stream or brook | |
| Bight | a bend or curve in the shore of a sea or river. | |
| Blockfield | a surface covered by boulder- or block-sized angular rocks usually associated with alpine and subpolar climates; stone field | |
| Bluff | a cliff, headland, or hill with a broad, steep face. | |
| Bodden | briny bodies of water often forming lagoons | |
| Bog | wet, spongy ground with soil composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter. | |
| Bornhardt | A large dome-shaped, steep-sided, bald rock | |
| Boscage ⤹Boskage | a mass of trees or shrubs; wood, grove, or thicket. | |
| Bosk | a small wood or thicket, especially of bushes. | |
| Bottoms | low alluvial land next to a river. | |
| Bourne | an intermittent stream, flowing from a spring | |
| Bower | a pleasant shady retreat under a canopy of trees. | |
| Brake | rough or marshy thicket land overgrown usually with one kind of plant, as in cedar brakes or coastal brakes | |
| Bratschen | steep rocky, unvegetated mountainsides that occur as a result of frost and aeolian corrasion | |
| Brook | a small, natural stream of fresh water. | |
| Brushland | land or an area covered with thickly growing bushes and low trees. | |
| Brushwood | a growth or thicket of densely growing small trees and shrubs. | |
| Butte | an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land. | |
| Cairns | a heap of stones set up as a landmark, monument, tombstone, etc | |
| Calanque | Narrow, steep-walled inlet | |
| Caldera | a large, basinlike depression resulting from the explosion or collapse of the center of a volcano. | |
| Callows | seasonally flooded grassland found on low-lying river floodplains | |
| Campo | an extensive, nearly level grassland plain. | |
| Canal | artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage or transport | |
| Canopy | the cover formed by the leafy upper branches of the trees in a forest. | |
| Canyon | a deep valley with steep sides, often with a stream flowing through it. | |
| Cape | a pointed piece of land that sticks out into a sea, ocean, lake, or river | |
| Carr | wetlands that are dominated by shrubs rather than trees | |
| Cave | a hollow in the earth, especially one opening more or less horizontally into a hill, mountain | |
| Cavern | a cave, especially one that is large and mostly underground. | |
| Chamber | a large room within a cavern | |
| Channel | the bed of a stream, river, or other waterway. | |
| Chaparral | a dense growth of shrubs or small trees. | |
| Chasm | a yawning fissure or deep cleft in the earth's surface; gorge. | |
| Cienega | alkaline, freshwater, spongy, wet meadows with shallow-gradient, permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes | |
| Cirque | a bowl-shaped, steep-walled mountain basin carved by glaciation, often containing a small, round lake | |
| Clearing | a tract of land, as in a forest, that contains no trees or bushes. | |
| Cleft | a crack forming an opening; crevice; rift; fissure. | |
| Cliffs | a high steep face of a rock. | |
| Coast | the land next to the sea; seashore: | |
| Col | Lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks | |
| Cone | a tall pointed mass formed from a volcano. Cinder Cone, Lava Cone, Rootless Cone | |
| Coppice | a thicket of small trees or bushes; a small wood; copse | |
| Copse | a thicket of small trees or bushes; a small wood. | |
| Corrie | An amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion | |
| Cove | a small indentation or recess in the shoreline of a sea, lake, or river. | |
| Covert | a thicket giving shelter to wild animals or game. | |
| Crag | a steep, rugged rock; rough, broken, projecting part of a rock. | |
| Crater | a hole or pit in the ground formed by a large impact, explosion, meteorite | |
| Creek | a stream smaller than a river. | |
| Crest | the highest part of a hill or mountain range; summit. | |
| Crevice | a crack forming an opening; cleft; rift; fissure. | |
| Cryptodome | Roughly circular protrusion from slowly extruded viscous volcanic lava | |
| Cuesta | Hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side and a steep slope on the other | |
| Dale | Low area between hills, often with a river running through it | |
| Dambo | shallow wetlands found in higher rainfall plateau areas | |
| Defile | Narrow pass or gorge between mountains or hills | |
| Dell | Small secluded hollow | |
| Delta | a nearly flat plain of alluvial deposit between diverging branches of the mouth of a river | |
| Den | a cave used as shelter or concealment; shelter for a wild animal | |
| Desert | am arid region of little rainfall that supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all: | |
| Diatreme | Volcanic pipe formed by a gaseous explosion | |
| Doab | Land between two converging, or confluent, rivers | |
| Dome | a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano | |
| Drift | a heap of any matter driven together, such as Snowdrift, Glacial Drift, etc | |
| Drumlin | an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg | |
| Dunes | a sand hill or sand ridge formed by the wind, usually in desert regions | |
| Eminence | a high place or part; a hill or elevation; height. | |
| Erg | Broad area of desert covered with wind-swept sand | |
| Escarpment | Steep slope or cliff separating two relatively level regions | |
| Esker | a serpentine ridge of gravelly and sandy drift | |
| Estuary | an arm or inlet of the sea at the lower end of a river | |
| Etchplain | Plain where the bedrock has been subject to considerable subsurface weathering | |
| Everglade | a tract of low, swampy land | |
| Farmland ⤹Farm | land under cultivation or capable of being cultivated: | |
| Felsenmeer | a surface covered by boulder- or block-sized angular rocks usually associated with alpine and subpolar climates; Stone Field | |
| Fen | low land covered wholly or partially with water; boggy land; a marsh. | |
| Field | an expanse of open or cleared ground, especially a piece of land suitable or used for pasture or tillage. | |
| Finger | a pointed piece of land sticking out over water; promontory; cape. | |
| Firth ⤹Frith | a long, narrow indentation of the seacoast. | |
| Fissure | long, narrow cracks or openings in the earth | |
| Fjard | a large open space of water between groups of islands or mainland in archipelagos | |
| Fjord | a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier | |
| Flarks | depressions or hollows within a bog | |
| Flatiron | Steeply sloping triangular landform | |
| Flats | a relatively level surface of land within a region of greater relief, such as hills or mountains. Mud Flats; Salt Flats | |
| Floodplain ⤹Flood-Meadow | a nearly flat plain along the course of a stream or river that is naturally subject to flooding. | |
| Floe | a sheet of floating ice. | |
| Flyggberg | Isolated, steep rock hill on relatively flat terrain | |
| Foreland | a pointed piece of land sticking out over water; promontory; cape. | |
| Forest | a large tract of land covered with trees and underbrush; woodland. | |
| Fundus | the seabed in a tidal river below low water mark | |
| Garden | a plot of ground where flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, or herbs are cultivated | |
| Gat | a strait that is constantly eroded by currents flowing back and forth, such as tidal currents | |
| Geyser | a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam | |
| Gio | a gully or a narrow and deep cleft in the face of a cliff; inlet | |
| Glaciokarst | karst landscape that was glaciated and displays major landforms of glacial influence | |
| Glade | an open space in a forest. | |
| Glebe | soil; field. especially cultivated by church | |
| Gorge | a narrow cleft with steep, rocky walls, especially one through which a stream runs; small canyon | |
| Grabben | Depressed block of planetary crust bordered by parallel normal faults | |
| Grassland | an area, as a prairie, in which the natural vegetation consists largely of perennial grasses | |
| Grotto | a cave or cavern. | |
| Grove | a small wood or forested area, usually with no undergrowth: | |
| Guelta | a pocket of water that forms in drainage canals of arid regions | |
| Gulch | Deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion | |
| Gulf | a portion of an ocean or sea partly enclosed by land. | |
| Gully | Landform created by running water and/or mass movement eroding sharply into soil | |
| Gut | a narrow coastal body of water, a channel or strait, usually one that is subject to strong tidal currents | |
| Guyot | an isolated underwater volcanic mountain | |
| Hapua | a river-mouth lagoon on a mixed sand and gravel beach | |
| Harbor | a body of water having docks or port facilities. | |
| Headland | a promontory extending into a large body of water. | |
| Heath | a tract of open and uncultivated land; wasteland overgrown with shrubs | |
| Hedge | a row of bushes or small trees planted close together, especially when forming a fence or boundary | |
| Highland | an elevated part of a country; plateau | |
| Hillock | a small hill | |
| Hills | a natural elevation of the earth's surface, smaller than a mountain. | |
| Hilltop | the top or summit of a hill. | |
| Hogback | Long, narrow ridge | |
| Hollow | a low, wooded area, such as a copse | |
| Holm | a low, flat tract of land beside a river or stream. or a small island in a lke or river. | |
| Hoodoo | Tall, thin spire of relatively soft rock usually topped by harder rock | |
| Hornito | Conical structures built up by lava ejected through an opening in the crust of a lava flow | |
| Horst | Raised fault block bounded by normal faults | |
| Hummock | a knoll or hillock. or a ridge in an ice field. | |
| Igapo | blackwater-flooded forests seasonally inundated with freshwater | |
| Ings | water meadows, marshes, flood plain | |
| Inlet | a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh | |
| Inselberg | Isolated, steep rock hill on relatively flat terrain | |
| Isthmus | a narrow strip of land, bordered on both sides by water, connecting two larger bodies of land. | |
| Jetty | a pier or structure of stones, piles, or the like, projecting into the sea or other body of water to protect a harbor, deflect the current, etc. | |
| Jungle | a wild land overgrown with dense vegetation; usually tropical; rainforest | |
| Kame | Mound formed on a retreating glacier and deposited on land | |
| Karst | an area of limestone terrane characterized by sinks, ravines, and underground streams | |
| Kettle | a deep, kettle-shaped depression formed by floodwatters or glacial drift. | |
| Kipuka | Area of land surrounded by one or more younger lava flows | |
| Knoll | a small, rounded hill or eminence; hillock. | |
| Kurum | a landform made up of a mantle of loose blocks of rock moving downslope by creep in cold climates | |
| Lagg | also called a moat, is the very wet zone on the perimeter of peatland or a bog | |
| Lagoon | any small, pondlike body of water, especially one connected with a larger body of water. | |
| Lake | a body of fresh or salt water of considerable size, surrounded by land | |
| Lakelet | a small lake | |
| Lavaka | Type of gully, formed via groundwater sapping | |
| Lea | a tract of open ground, especially grassland; meadow. | |
| Lithalsa | a frost-induced raised land form in permafrost areas with mineral-rich soils | |
| Llano | a treeless grassy plain | |
| Loch | a partially landlocked or protected bay | |
| Maar | a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by groundwater hitting magma | |
| Machair | fertile low-lying grassy plain by a coastline, often flooded | |
| Malpais | Rough and barren landscape of relict and largely uneroded lava fields | |
| Mamelon | Rock formation created by eruption of relatively thick or stiff lava through a narrow vent | |
| Marshland ⤹Marsh | a tract of low wet land, often treeless and periodically inundated | |
| Mead | land that is or is used for meadow | |
| Meadow | a tract of grassland used for pasture or serving as a hayfield. | |
| Meander | one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse | |
| Mere | a shallow lake, pond, or wetland | |
| Mesa | a land formation, less extensive than a plateau, having steep walls and a relatively flat top | |
| Mire | a tract or area of wet, swampy ground; bog; marsh. | |
| Mogote | Steep-sided residual hill of limestone, marble, or dolomite on a flat plain | |
| Monadnock | Isolated, steep rock hill on relatively flat terrain | |
| Moor | a tract of open, peaty, wasteland, often overgrown with heath | |
| Moraine | Glacially formed accumulation of debris | |
| Morass | a tract of low, soft, wet ground. | |
| Moulin | Shaft within a glacier or ice sheet which water enters from the surface | |
| Mound | am elevation of earth; naturally a hillock or knoll, artifically a dam or barrier | |
| Mountain | a natural elevation of the earth's surface rising more or less abruptly to a summit | |
| Mouth | the outfall at the lower end of a river or stream, where flowing water is discharged | |
| Mudflat | coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers | |
| Muskeg | a bog, commonly having mosses, sedge, and sometimes stunted black spruce and tamarack trees. | |
| Naze | a pointed piece of land sticking out over water; promontory; cape. | |
| Neck | a narrow strip of land, as an isthmus or a cape. | |
| Ness | a pointed piece of land sticking out over water; headland; promontory; cape. | |
| Nook | any remote or sheltered spot | |
| Noth | a deep, narrow mountain pass | |
| Nubbin | Small hill of bedrock with rounded residual blocks | |
| Nunatak | Landform within an ice field or glacier. Island in ice. | |
| Oasis | a small fertile or green area in a desert region, usually having a spring or well | |
| Orchard | an area of land devoted to the cultivation of fruit or nut trees | |
| Paha | elongated landforms composed either of only loess or till capped by loess | |
| Paleoplain | A buried erosion plain; a particularly large and flat erosion surface | |
| Palisades | a line of cliffs. | |
| Palsa | peat mounds with a permanently frozen peat and mineral soil core | |
| Pampas | a vast grassy plain | |
| Pass | a navigable route through otherwise difficult terrain, such as a mountain range | |
| Pasture | an area covered with grass or other plants used or suitable for the grazing of livestock; grassland. | |
| Peak | the pointed top of a mountain or ridge. | |
| Peatland | an extensive tract of land where peat has formed. | |
| Pediment | Very gently sloping inclined bedrock surface | |
| Peneplain | Low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion | |
| Peninsula | an area of land almost completely surrounded by water except for an isthmus connecting it with the mainland | |
| Pine Barren | a tract of sandy or peaty soil in which pine trees are the principal growth | |
| Pingo | intrapermafrost ice-cored hills | |
| Pinnacle | a lofty peak. | |
| Plains | extensive tracts of level or almost level treeless countryside; prairies | |
| Playa | a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body; dry lake bed | |
| Pocosin | a swamp or marsh in an upland coastal region. | |
| Point | a projecting piece of land, such as a mountain peak or cape | |
| Polder | a tract of low land, reclaimed from the sea or other body of water and protected by dikes. | |
| Pond | a body of water smaller than a lake | |
| Pool | a small body of standing water; pond. a still, deep place in a stream. | |
| Potrero | Long mesa that at one end slopes upward to higher terrain | |
| Prairie | an extensive, level or slightly undulating, mostly treeless tract of land | |
| Quag | quagmire; an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; | |
| Quagmire | an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; a bog. | |
| Rainforest | a tropical forest, usually of tall, densely growing, broad-leaved evergreen trees in an area of high annual rainfall. | |
| Range | a series of more or less connected mountains ranged in a line. | |
| Rangeland ⤹Range | an area that may be ranged over, especially for grazing livestock. | |
| Rapids | sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence | |
| Ravine | Small valley, often due to stream erosion | |
| Reach | a straight portion of a river between two bends. | |
| Recess | a receding part or space, as a bay or alcove | |
| Reef | a ridge of rocks or sand, often of coral debris, at or near the surface of the water | |
| Reservoir | a natural or artificial place where water is collected and stored for use | |
| Restingas | coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest | |
| Ria | a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley | |
| Ridge | a long, narrow elevation of land; a chain of hills or mountains. | |
| Riffle | Shallow landform in a flowing channel | |
| Rift | an opening made by splitting, cleaving, etc.; fissure; cleft; chink. a fault. | |
| Rill | a small rivulet or brook. | |
| Rim | the outer edge or border of a mountain range, especially when circular. | |
| Rindle | A small watercourse or gutter. | |
| River | a natural stream of water of fairly large size flowing in a definite course or channel | |
| Rivulet | a small stream; streamlet; brook. | |
| Runlet | a small stream | |
| Runnel | a small stream; brook; rivulet. | |
| Saddle | Land connecting two high points | |
| Sand Boil | Cone formed by the ejection of sand on a surface from a central point | |
| Sandbank | a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface; shoal; sandbar | |
| Sandbar | a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface; shoal; sandbank | |
| Sandhill | a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem | |
| Sandur | Plain formed from glacier sediment transported by meltwater | |
| Savanna | a plain characterized by coarse grasses and scattered tree growth | |
| Scarp | Steep slope or cliff separating two relatively level regions | |
| Scree | a steep mass of detritus on the side of a mountain. | |
| Scrubland | land on which the natural vegetation is chiefly scrub. | |
| Sea | large bodies of salt water; ocean | |
| Seamount | Mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface | |
| Sedgeland ⤹Sedges | land or an area covered with sedge | |
| Shallows | a shallow part of a body of water; shoal. | |
| Shaw | a small wood or thicket. | |
| Shoal | a place where a sea, river, or other body of water is shallow. | |
| Shore | the land along the edge of a sea, lake, broad river, etc. | |
| Shoreline | the line where shore and water meet. | |
| Shrubland | tract of land characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes | |
| Sierra | a chain of hills or mountains, the peaks of which suggest the teeth of a saw. | |
| Sinks | sinkhole | |
| Skerry | a small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation | |
| Slobs | coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers; mudflat | |
| Slopes | ground that has a natural incline, as the side of a hill. | |
| Slough | a swamp or shallow lake system, usually a backwater to a larger body of water | |
| Sluice | an artificial channel for conducting water | |
| Sound | a smaller body of water typically connected to a larger sea or ocean | |
| Spike | an abrupt increase or rise on a mountain crest | |
| Sandspit ⤹Spit | spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores | |
| Springs | an issue of water from the earth, taking the form, on the surface, of a small stream or standing as a pool or small lake. | |
| Spur | a lateral ridge or tongue of land descending from a hill, mountain or main crest of a ridge | |
| Stack | a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion | |
| Steppe | an extensive plain, especially one without trees. | |
| Stone Field | a surface covered by boulder- or block-sized angular rocks usually associated with alpine and subpolar climates; | |
| Strait | an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water | |
| Strandflat | a flattish erosion surface on the coast and near-coast seabed | |
| Strandplain | a broad belt of sand along a shoreline with a surface exhibiting well-defined parallel or semi-parallel sand ridges separated by shallow swales | |
| Strath | Large valley | |
| Stream | a body of water flowing in a channel or watercourse, as a river, rivulet, or brook. | |
| Streambed | the bottom of a stream or river or the physical confine of the normal water flow | |
| Streamlet | a small stream; rivulet. | |
| Summit | the highest point or part, as of a hill or mountain | |
| Swale | a low place in a tract of land, usually moister and often having ranker vegetation than the adjacent higher land. | |
| Swamp | a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of trees and other vegetation, but unfit for cultivation | |
| Sward ⤹Swarth | an expanse of short grass | |
| Tableland | an elevated and generally level region of considerable extent; plateau. | |
| Taiga | the coniferous evergreen forests of subarctic lands | |
| Talus | a steep, rocky slope usually found at the base of a mountain | |
| Tanglewood ⤹Tangle | a very dense, tangled wood that is nearly impassable | |
| Tarn | a small mountain lake or pool, especially one in a cirque | |
| Tepui | Table-top mountain or mesa | |
| Terracette | Small natural step-arranged soil ridges on hillsides | |
| Thermokarst | terrain characterised by very irregular surfaces of marshy hollows and small hummocks formed as ice-rich permafrost thaws | |
| Thicket | a thick or dense growth of shrubs, bushes, or small trees | |
| Tide Pool | a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore | |
| Timberland | land covered with timber-producing forests. | |
| Timberline | the altitude above sea level at which timber ceases to grow; often an abrupt end to woodland | |
| Tombolos | a sandy or shingle isthmus | |
| Tor | a rocky pinnacle; a peak of a bare or rocky mountain or hill. | |
| Towhead | Exposed land within a river. | |
| Tree Throw | a bowl-shaped cavity or depression created in the subsoil by a tree | |
| Treeline | an abrupt edge to a forest or woodland; often a timberline | |
| Trench | Long and narrow depressions | |
| Tundra | one of the vast, nearly level, treeless plains of the Arctic regions | |
| Tunnel | an underground passage, natural or manmade | |
| Tuya | Flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet | |
| Upland | the higher ground of a region or district; an elevated region. | |
| Vale | Low area between hills, often with a river running through it | |
| Valley | an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains | |
| Veld ⤹Veldt | open, uncultivated country or grassland | |
| Vent | a rupture in the crust that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and/or gases to escape | |
| Vineyard | a plantation of grapevines | |
| Volcano | a vent in the earth's crust through which lava, steam, ashes, etc., are expelled | |
| Wadi | River valley, especially a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain | |
| Waituna | a freshwater coastal lagoon on a mixed sand and gravel beach | |
| Wasteland ⤹Wastes | land that is uncultivated or barren. | |
| Watercourse | a stream of water, as a river or brook. | |
| Weald | wooded or uncultivated country. | |
| Wetland | land that has a wet and spongy soil, as a marsh, swamp, or bog. | |
| Windthrow | an area of uprooted and overthrown tress caused by high winds | |
| Woodland | land covered with woods or trees. | |
| Woodlot | a parcel of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products | |
| Woods | an area of land, smaller than a forest, that is covered with growing trees | |
| Yardang | a sharp irregular ridge of compact sand formed by wind erosion |
