Map Vocabulary
More Map Vocabulary
Kinds of Maps
Regions of the USA
The Mighty Mississippi
100
This is the site where something can be found.
What is location?
100
This is an explanation of what the symbols on a map stand for.
What is the map key?
100
A map that shows just one kind of information. Such as rainfall or elevation.
What is a specialty map?
100
A low, flat plain that runs along the coast like the one in both the Northeast and Southeast regions.
What is a coastal plain?
100
A wall, typically made of dirt, built by humans along a river to keep it from flooding.
What is a levee?
200
North, South, East, West
What are the four cardinal directions?
200
The imaginary lines that run East and West around the globe. Also called parallels.
What are lines of latitude?
200
Type of map that shows landforms such as mountains, valleys, and plains. Also, shows bodies of water.
What is a physical map?
200
The region that is completely inland.
What is the Midwest?
200
This type of boat brought interesting people, goods for the stores, and letters from faraway places in Mark Twain's time.
What is a steamboat?
300
NE, SE, NW, SW
What are the intermediate directions?
300
The imaginary lines that run North and South around the globe.
What are the lines of longitude?
300
Type of map that shows how much rain falls in different parts of the world.
What is rainfall map?
300
A high, flat landform that rises steeply from the land around it. Found mainly in the Southwest region.
What is a plateau?
300
In 2005, this hurricane hit Louisiana which resulted in many levees along the Mississippi breaking.
What is Hurricane Katrina?
400
The part of the map where the cardinal directions can be found.
What is the compass rose?
400
The grid formed by crisscrossing lines of latitude and longitude.
What is the global grid?
400
Type of map that shows cities, capitals, states, and countries.
What is a political map?
400
A bowl-shaped landform that is lower than the land around it.
What is a basin?
400
This present day type of boat carries millions of tons of goods up and down the river each year.
What is a barge?
500
This shows the relationship between map distances and real distances.
What is the map scale?
500
This is the most common type of map scale.
What is a line scale?
500
The height of the land above the ocean.
What is elevation?
500
The region where most of the land is mountainous.
What is the West?
500
The northern most state that the Mississippi river runs through.
What is Minnesota?
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