Nature Vocabulary

Field – an area of land, used for growing crops or keeping animals, usually surrounded by a fence.

Sentence – The farmers distributed seeds over the field.

Footbridge – a narrow bridge that is only used by people who are walking.

Sentence – He trotted along the path to the footbridge, crossed it and raced out on to Water Meadow.

River – a natural wide flow of fresh water across the land into the sea, a lake, or another river.

Sentence – Some people just dump their rubbish in the river.

Mountain – a raised part of the earth’s surface, much larger than a hill, the top of which might be covered in snow.

Sentence – Their car bumped along the rough mountain road.

Forest – a large area of land covered with trees and plants, usually larger than a wood, or the trees and plants themselves.

Sentence – Mining would pollute the lake and denude the forest.

Village – a group of houses and other buildings that is smaller than a town, usually in the countryside.

Sentence – The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.

Environment – the conditions that you live or work in and the way that they influence how you feel or how effectively you can work.

Sentence – Certain chemicals have been banned because of their damaging effect on the environment.

Waterfall – water, especially from a river or stream, dropping from a higher to a lower point, sometimes from a great height.

Sentence – The waterfall makes a sheer drop of one thousand feet.

Coast – the land next to or close to the sea.

Sentence – We get heavy fogs on this coast in winter.

Reef – a line of rocks or sand just above or just below the surface of the sea, often dangerous to ships.

Sentence – The abundant reef growth on Gotland was shown to be coeval with that in Estonia.

Lake – a large area of water surrounded by land and not connected to the sea except by rivers or streams.

Sentence – The view of lake and plunging cliffs seduces visitors.

Valley – an area of low land between hills or mountains, often with a river running through it.

Sentence – The entire valley reverberated with the sound of the temple bells.

Peninsula – a long piece of land that sticks out from a larger area of land into the sea or into a lake.

Sentence – Frank Hill’s is well known on the Holderness peninsula of east Yorkshire for livestock and farm auctions.

Earthquake – a sudden violent movement of the earth’s surface, sometimes causing great damage.

Sentence – Government officials visited the earthquake zone on Thursday morning to co-ordinate the relief effort.

Avalanche – a large amount of ice, snow, and rock falling quickly down the side of a mountain.

Sentence – If an avalanche strikes, skiers can be buried alive by snow.

Tornado – a strong, dangerous wind that forms itself into an upside-down spinning cone and is able to destroy buildings as it moves across the ground.

Sentence – A tornado destroyed grain crops across much of the Midwest.

Typhoon – a violent wind that has a circular movement, found in the West Pacific Ocean.

Sentence – The 169 000-ton vessel went down during a typhoon in the South China Sea.

Hill – an area of land that is higher than the surrounding land.

Sentence – He stood on the hill surveying the landscape.

Cliff – a high area of rock with a very steep side, often on a coast.

Sentence – Pointing down to the bottom of the cliff, Mary showed us the dangerous rocks.