badland
badland Lexical Profile
badland Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An arid, barren tract of land (usually used in the plural, 'badlands'), especially in western North America, where soft sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water into steep ridges, gullies, ravines, and hoodoos.
"Paleontologists uncovered several intact dinosaur fossils embedded in the steep, eroded gullies of the badlands."
Word Nuance & Usage
Most commonly used in the plural form ('badlands') to refer to an extensive region of eroded, barren terrain, whereas the singular 'badland' is often used attributively in geology (e.g., 'badland topography').
• Rhymes for badland
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in mid-19th-century American English as a calque of Canadian French 'mauvaises terres' (literally 'bad lands') and Lakota 'mako sica', terms originally applied by fur trappers and Indigenous peoples to the rugged, arid terrain of southwestern South Dakota.