A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
Note: The following concepts transcend all units in AP Human Geography; they are central to all geographic thinking and analysis and could even be considered central to any definition of geography.
Basic Concepts
1. Changing attributes of place
2. Built landscape (Changing attributes of a place)
3. Sequent occupance (Changing attributes of a place)
4. Cultural attributes
5. Cultural landscape
6. Density
7. Arithmetic Density
8. Physiological Density
9. Diffusion
10. Hearth
11. Relocation
12. Expansion
13. Hierarchical
14. Contagious
15. stimulus
16. Direction
17. Absolute direction
18. Relative direction
19. Dispersion
20. Concentration
21. Dispersed /scattered
22. clustered/agglomerated
23. Distance
24. Absolute distance
25. Relative Distance
26. Distribution
27. Environmental determinism
28. Location
29. Absolute location
30. Relative location
31. Site
32. Situation
33. Place name
34. Pattern
35. Linear pattern
36. Centralized pattern
37. Random pattern
38. Physical attributes
39. natural landscape
40. Possibilism
41. Region
42. Formal region
43. Uniform region
44. Functional/nodal region
45. perceptual/vernacular region
46. Scale (implied degree of generalization)
47. Size
48. Spatial (of or pertaining to space on or near Earth’s surface)
49. Spatial interaction
50. Accessibility
51. Connectivity
52. Network
53. Distance decay
54. Friction of distance
55. Time-space compression
Geographic Tools
1. Distortion
2. Geographic Information System (GIS)
3. Global Positioning System (GPS)
4. Grid
5. North pole
6. South Poles
7. Latitude
8. Parallel
9. Equator
10. Longitude
11. Meridian
12. Prime meridian
13. International date line
14. Map (Maps are the tool most uniquely identified with geography; the ability to use and interpret maps is an essential geographic skill.)
15. Map scale (distance on a map relative to distance on Earth)
16. Map types
17. Thematic maps
18. Statistical
19. Cartogram
20. Dot
21. Choropleth
22. Isoline
23. Mental map
24. Model (a simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify causal relationships): Geographers use models to explain patterns, make informed decisions, and predict future behaviors.
25. Demographic Transition
26. Epidemiological Transition
27. Gravity
28. Von Thünen
29. Weber
30. Stages of Growth [Rostow]
31. Concentric Circle [Burgess]
32. Sector [Hoyt]
33. Multiple Nuclei
34. Central Place [Christaller]
35. Projection
36. Remote sensing
37. Time zones
A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit II. Population—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
Population
1. Age distribution
2. Carrying capacity
3. Cohort
4. Demographic equation
5. Demographic momentum
6. Demographic regions
7. Demographic Transition model
8. Dependency ratio
9. Diffusion of fertility control
10. Disease diffusion
11. Doubling time
12. Ecumene
13. Epidemiological Transition model
14. Gendered space
15. Infant mortality rate
16. J-curve
17. Maladaptation
18. Malthus, Thomas
19. Mortality
20. Natality
21. Neo-Malthusian
22. Overpopulation
23. Population densities
24. Population distributions
25. Population explosion
26. Population projection
27. Population pyramid
28. Rate of natural increase
29. S-curve
30. Sex ratio
31. Standard of living
32. Sustainability
33. Underpopulation
34. Zero population growth
35. Migration
36. Activity space
37. Chain migration
38. Cyclic movement
39. Distance decay
40. Forced
41. Gravity model
42. Internal migration
43. Intervening opportunity
44. Migration patterns
45. Intercontinental Migration Patterns
46. Interregional migration patterns
47. Rural-urban migration patterns
48. Migratory movement
49. Periodic movement
50. Personal space
51. Place utility
52. Push-pull factors
53. Refugee
54. Space-time prism
55. Step migration
56. Transhumance
57. Transmigration
58. Voluntary
A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit III. Cultural Patterns and Processes, Part 1—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
Concepts of Culture
1. Acculturation
2. Assimilation
3. Cultural adaptation
4. Cultural core/periphery pattern
5. Cultural ecology
6. Cultural identity
7. Cultural landscape
8. Cultural realm
9. Culture
10. Culture region
11. Formal—core, periphery
12. Functional—node
13. Vernacular (perceptual)—regional self-awareness
14. Diffusion types
15. Expansion
16. Hierarchical expansion
17. Contagious expansion
18. Stimulus expansion
19. Relocation
20. Innovation adoption
21. Maladaptive diffusion
22. Sequent occupance
Folk and Popular Culture
1. Adaptive strategies
2. Anglo-American landscape characteristics
3. Architectural form
4. Built environment
5. Folk culture
6. Folk food
7. Folk house
8. Folk songs
9. Folklore
10. Material culture
11. Nonmaterial culture
12. Popular culture
13. Survey systems
14. Traditional architecture
15. Language
16. Creole
17. Dialect
18. Indo-European languages
19. Isogloss
20. Language
21. Language family
22. Language group
23. Language subfamily
24. Lingua franca
25. Linguistic diversity
26. Monolingual/multilingual
27. Official language
28. Pidgin
29. Toponymy
30. Trade language
A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit III. Cultural Patterns and Processes, Part 2—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
Religion
1. Animism
2. Buddhism
3. Cargo cult pilgrimage
4. Christianity
5. Confucianism
6. Ethnic religion
7. Exclave/enclave
8. Fundamentalism
9. Geomancy (feng shui)
10. Hadj
11. Hinduism
12. Interfaith boundaries
13. Islam
14. Jainism
15. Judaism
16. Landscapes of the dead
17. Monotheism
18. polytheism
19. Mormonism
20. Muslim pilgrimage
21. Muslim population
22. Proselytic religion
23. Reincarnation
24. Religion (groups, places)
25. Religious architectural styles
26. Religious conflict
27. Religious culture hearth
28. Religious toponym
29. Sacred space
30. Secularism
31. Shamanism
32. Sharia law
33. Shintoism
34. Sikhism
35. Sunni/Shia
36. Taoism
37. Theocracy
38. Universalizing
39. Zoroastrianism
40. Ethnicity
41. Acculturation
42. Adaptive strategy
43. Assimilation
44. Barrio
45. Chain migration
46. Cultural adaptation
47. Cultural shatterbelt
48. Ethnic cleansing
49. Ethnic conflict
50. Ethnic enclave
51. Ethnic group
52. Ethnic homeland
53. Ethnic landscape
54. Ethnic neighborhood
55. Ethnicity
56. Ethnocentrism
57. Ghetto
58. Plural society
59. Race
60. Segregation
61. Social distance
62. Gender
63. Dowry death
64. Enfranchisement
65. Gender
66. Gender gap
67. Infanticide
68. Longevity gap
69. Maternal mortality rate
A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit IV. Political Organization of Space—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
1. Annexation
2. Antarctica
3. Apartheid
4. Balkanization
5. Border landscape
6. Boundary
7. Definitional Boundary disputes
8. Locational boundary disputes
9. Operational boundary disputes
10. Allocational boundary disputes
11. Boundary origin
12. Antecedent boundary
13. Subsequent boundary
14. Superimposed boundary
15. Relic
16. Boundary process
17. Delimitation boundary process
18. Demarcation boundary process
19. Types of Boundary
20. Natural boundary
21. Physical boundary
22. Ethnographic boundary
23. Cultural boundary
24. Geometric boundary
25. Buffer state
26. Capital
27. Centrifugal
28. Centripetal
29. City-state
30. Colonialism
31. Confederation
32. Conference of Berlin (1884)
33. Core/periphery
34. Decolonization
35. Devolution
36. Domino theory
37. EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)
38. Electoral regions
39. Enclave/exclave
40. Ethnic conflict
41. European Union
42. Federal
43. Forward capital
44. Frontier
45. Geopolitics
46. Gerrymander
47. Global commons
48. Heartland/rimland
49. Immigrant states
50. International organization
51. Iron Curtain
52. Irredentism
53. Israel/Palestine
54. Landlocked
55. Law of the Sea
56. Lebanon
57. Mackinder, Halford J.
58. Manifest destiny
59. Median-line principle
60. Microstate
61. Ministate
62. Nation
63. National iconography
64. Nation-state
65. Nunavut
66. Raison d’être
67. Reapportionment
68. Regionalism
69. Religious conflict
70. Reunification
71. Satellite state
72. Self-determination
73. Shatterbelt
74. Sovereignty
75. State
76. Stateless ethnic groups
77. Stateless nation
78. Suffrage
79. Supranationalism
80. Territorial disputes
81. Territorial morphology
82. Compact morphology
83. Fragmented morphology
84. Elongated morphology
85. Prorupt morphology
86. perforated
87. Territoriality
88. Theocracy
89. Treaty ports
90. UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)
91. Unitary
92. USSR collapse
93. Women’s enfranchisement
A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit V. Agricultural and Rural Land Use—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
1. Adaptive strategies
2. Agrarian
3. Agribusiness
4. Agricultural industrialization
5. Agricultural landscape
6. Agricultural location model
7. Agricultural origins
8. Agriculture
9. Animal domestication
10. Aquaculture
11. Biorevolution
12. Biotechnology
13. Collective farm
14. Commercial agriculture (intensive, extensive)
15. Core/periphery
16. Crop rotation
17. Cultivation regions
18. Dairying
19. Debt-for-nature swap
20. Diffusion
21. Double cropping
22. Primary Economic activity
23. Secondary Economic Activity
24. Tertiary Economic Activity
25. Quaternary economic activity
26. Quinary economic activity
27. Environmental modification
28. Pesticides
29. Soil erosion
30. Desertification
31. Extensive subsistence agriculture
32. Shifting cultivation
33. Slash-and- burn
34. Milpa
35. Swidden
36. Nomadic herding
37. Pastoralism
38. Extractive industry
39. Farm crisis
40. Farming
41. Feedlot
42. First agricultural revolution
43. Fishing
44. Food chain
45. Forestry
46. Globalized agriculture
47. Green revolution
48. Growing season
49. Hunting and gathering
50. Intensive subsistence agriculture
51. Intertillage
52. Livestock ranching
53. Market gardening
54. Mediterranean agriculture
55. Mineral fuels
56. Mining
57. Planned economy
58. Plant domestication
59. Plantation agriculture
60. Renewable/nonrenewable
61. Rural settlement
62. Dispersed settlement
63. Nucleated settlement
64. Building material
65. Village form settlement
66. Sauer, Carl O.
67. Second agricultural revolution
68. Specialization
69. Staple grains
70. Suitcase farm
71. Survey patterns
72. Long lots
73. Metes
74. Bounds
75. Township-and-range
76. Sustainable yield
77. Third agricultural revolution
78. Mechanization
79. chemical farming
80. Food manufacturing
81. “Tragedy of the commons”
82. Transhumance
83. Truck farm
84. Von Thünen, Johann Heinrich
A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit VI. Industrialization and Development—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
Development
1. Agricultural labor force
2. Calorie consumption
3. Core-periphery model
4. Cultural convergence
5. Dependency theory
6. Development
7. Energy consumption
8. Foreign direct investment
9. Gender
10. Gross domestic product (GDP)
11. Gross national product (GNP)
12. Human Development Index
13. Levels of development
14. Measures of development
15. Neocolonialism
16. Physical Quality of Life Index
17. Purchasing power parity
18. Rostow, W. W.
19. “Stages of Growth” model
20. Technology gap
21. Technology transfer
22. Third World
23. World Systems Theory
24. Industrialization
25. Acid rain
26. Agglomeration
27. Agglomeration economies
28. Air pollution
29. Aluminum industry (factors of production, location)
30. Assembly line production/Fordism
31. Bid rent theory
32. Break-of-bulk point
33. Canadian industrial heartland
34. Carrier efficiency
35. Comparative advantage
36. Cumulative causation
37. Deglomeration
38. Deindustrialization
39. Economic sectors
40. Economies of scale
41. Ecotourism
42. Energy resources
43. Entrepôt
44. Export processing zone
45. Fixed costs
46. Footloose industry
47. Four Tigers
48. Greenhouse effect
49. Growth poles
50. Heartland/rimland
51. Industrial location theory
52. Industrial regions (place, fuel source, characteristics)
53. Industrial Revolution
54. Industry (receding, growing)
55. Infrastructure
56. International division of labor
57. labor-intensive
58. Least-cost location
59. Major manufacturing regions
60. Manufacturing exports
61. Manufacturing/warehouse location
62. Industrial parks
63. Agglomeration
64. Shared services
65. Zoning
66. Transportation
67. Taxes
68. environmental considerations
69. Maquiladora
70. Market orientation
71. Multiplier effect
72. NAFTA
73. Outsourcing
74. Ozone depletion
75. Plant location (supplies, “just in time” delivery)
76. Postindustrial
77. Refrigeration
78. Resource crisis
79. Resource orientation
80. Special economic zones (China)
81. Specialized economic zones
82. Substitution principle
83. Threshold/range
84. Time-space compression
85. Topocide
86. Trade (complementarity)
87. Transnational corporation
88. Ubiquitous
89. Variable costs
90. Weber, Alfred
91. Weight-gaining
92. Weight-losing
93. World cities
A Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography
Martha Sharma
Retired teacher
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Unit VII. Cities and Urban Land Use—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
1. Agglomeration
2. Barriadas
3. Bid-rent theory
4. Blockbusting
5. CBD (central business district)
6. Census tract
7. Centrality
8. Centralization
9. Central-place theory
10. Christaller, Walter
11. City
12. Cityscapes
13. Colonial city
14. Commercialization
15. Commuter zone
16. Concentric zone model
17. Counterurbanization
18. Decentralization
19. Deindustrialization
20. Early cities
21. Basic Economic base
22. Nonbasic Economic Base
23. Edge city
24. Emerging cities
25. Employment structure
26. Entrepôt
27. Ethnic neighborhood
28. Favela
29. Female-headed household
30. Festival landscape
31. Gateway city
32. Gender
33. Gentrification
34. Ghetto
35. Globalization
36. Great cities
37. High-tech corridors
38. Hinterland
39. Hydraulic civilization
40. Indigenous city
41. In-filling
42. Informal sector
43. Infrastructure
44. Inner city
45. Invasion and succession
46. Lateral commuting
47. Medieval cities
48. Megacities
49. Megalopolis
50. conurbation
51. Metropolitan area
52. Multiple nuclei model
53. Multiplier effect
54. Neighborhood
55. Office park
56. Peak land value intersection
57. Planned communities
58. Postindustrial city
59. Postmodern urban landscape
60. Primate city
61. Racial steering
62. Rank-size rule
63. Redlining
64. Restrictive covenants
65. Sector model
66. Segregation
67. Nucleated Settlement form
68. Dispersed settlement form
69. Elongated settlement Form
70. Shopping mall
71. Site/situation
72. Slum
73. Social structure
74. Specialization
75. Squatter settlement
76. Street pattern
77. Grid
78. Dendritic
79. Access
80. control
81. Suburb
82. Suburbanization
83. Symbolic landscape
84. Tenement
85. threshold/range
86. Town
87. Underclass
88. Underemployment
89. Urban growth rate
90. Urban function
91. Urban hearth area
92. Urban heat island
93. Urban hierarchy
94. Urban hydrology
95. Urban morphology
96. Urbanization
97. Urbanized population
98. World city
99. Zone in transition
100. Zoning