click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Semester Study Guide
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| dike | a large barrier built to keep out water |
| polder | the land reclaimed from building dikes and then draining the water from the land |
| estuary | an area where the river currents and the ocean tide meet |
| feudalism | the political and social system in which kings gave land to nobles in exchange for the nobles’ promise to serve them; those nobles provided military service as knights for the king |
| middle ages | a time of transition between ancient times and modern times |
| parliament | the national legislature of England |
| glaciation | the process of becoming covered by glaciers |
| fjord | a narrow, u-shaped coastal valley with steep sides formed by the action of glaciers |
| tundra | a flat, treeless plain with permanently frozen ground |
| scrubland | land that is dry and hot in the summer and cool and wet in the winter; only small trees and shrubs can survive there |
| city-state | an independent political unit that includes a city and the surrounding area |
| longships | a ship with oars and sails used by Vikings |
| pagan | someone who believes in more than one god or has little/no religious belief |
| renaissance | a period of rapid growth and development in literature and science after the Middle Ages |
| homogenous | alike or the same throughout |
| tsunami | a giant ocean wave that is caused by earthquakes |
| archipelago | a group of islands |
| dynasty | a line of rulers from a single family that holds power for a long time |
| samurai | a powerful land-owning warrior in ancient Japan |
| shogun | a military leader who ruled Japan in early times |
| delta | an area where sand, silt, clay, or gravel is dropped at the mouth of a river (triangle shape) |
| silt | small particles of rich soil |
| wadis | a dry riverbed that fills with water when rare rains fall in a desert |
| ergs | a large area of sand |
| nomad | a person who lives by moving from place to place to follow and hunt herds of migrating animals or to lead herds of grazing animals to fresh pastures |
| aquifer | an underground layer of rock through which water flows |
| pharaoh | Egyptian king, had religious significance, considered descended from gods |
| hieroglyphics | the system of writing that uses small pictures to represent sounds or words |
| monotheism | belief in and worship of only one god |
| caliph | the successor to Muhammad (islamic rulers) |
| fundamentalists | |
| civil war | |
| souk | |
| fellaheen | |
| constitution | |
| outback | |
| monolith | |
| aboriginal | |
| coral reef | |
| hot springs | |
| geysers | |
| drought | |
| marsupial | |
| eucalyptus | |
| dingoes | |
| boomerang | |
| tikanga | |
| kapahaka | |
| stations | |
| didgeridoo | |
| bush | |
| introduced species | |
| action songs | |
| geothermal energy | |
| continental island | |
| high island | |
| lagoon | |
| wayfinding | |
| fale | |
| pidgin |