Body of water

A body of water or waterbody is any significant amount of water found on the Earth's surface. This term usually means big places like oceans, seas, and lakes, but it can also include smaller ones such as ponds, wetlands, or even puddles. Moving water, like in rivers, streams, and canals, are also considered bodies of water.

Most bodies of water happen naturally and are large geographical features, but some are made by people. For example, reservoirs are usually created by building dams, though some natural lakes can also serve this purpose. Many harbors are natural bays, but some have been built by people.

The Aubach, a watercourse in Germany

Bodies of water that can be used for travel are called waterways. Some, like rivers and streams, collect and move water, while others, like lakes and oceans, mainly hold water.

Gravity affects bodies of water, creating tidal effects. Climate change is having a big impact on water, leading to rising sea levels, water acidification, and more flooding. This change affects water temperature, precipitation, and sea levels. Warmer temperatures melt glaciers and ice, raising sea levels and harming coastal areas. Freshwater sources like rivers and lakes face more droughts, affecting people and wildlife. Ocean acidification, caused by carbon dioxide, threatens marine life such as coral reefs. Working together globally is important to manage water sustainably.

Types

This section lists some common types of bodies of water. It does not include features like geysers, rapids, or waterfalls because they are not bodies of water by themselves. Some terms about wetlands refer to both water and the land around it, and these are included in the list.

Common types of bodies of water
Name	Description	Categorization				Regional association	Examples
Name	Description	Running	Inland	Ephemeral	Wetland	Regional association	Examples
Anabranch	A distributary that re-joins the branch it separated from further downstream.	Yes	Yes	No	No		the Great Darling Anabranch
Arm	An inlet; a narrow extension of a larger body of water.	Varies	Varies	No	No		Indian Arm
Arroyo	A bed of a steep-sided gully that temporarily fills with water after heavy rain.	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	the Southwestern United States
Artificial lake	An artificially created lake.	No	Yes	No	No		Lake Burley Griffin
Backwater	A stagnant section of a river.	Varies	Yes	No	Varies		the Kerala backwaters
Barachois	A lagoon separated from the ocean by a sand bar.	No	No	No	No	Atlantic Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon	Grand Barachois
Bay	A wide indentation of the coast of a larger body of water.	No	No	No	No		Bridgwater Bay
Bayou	A slow-moving marshy body of water.	Yes	Yes	No	Varies	the Gulf South of the United States, especially Louisiana	Bayou Teche
Bight	A large and wide indentation in the shoreline of a sea or ocean; a large bay or gulf.	No	No	No	No		the Bight of Benin
Billabong	An oxbow lake; a distributary leading to a dead-end or backwater; an ephemeral body of water formed after a dry creek bed floods.	No	Yes	Varies	No	Australia	Anbangbang Billabong
Bog	A wetland that accumulates peat.	No	Yes	No	Yes		Chat Moss
Bourne	An ephemeral chalk stream.	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Southern England
Broad	A river spreading out across lowlands; a shallow lake.	No	Yes	No	No	England, especially in the Broads region of Norfolk and Suffolk	Hickling Broad
Brook	A watercourse that is bigger than a stream but smaller than a river.	Yes	Yes	No	No		Moston Brook
Burn	A watercourse that is bigger than a stream but smaller than a river.	Yes	Yes	No	No	Scotland and North East England	the Usway Burn
Canal	An artificial waterway; a channel.	Varies	Varies	No	No		Stamford Canal
Cenote	A sinkhole with exposed groundwater at the bottom, formed as a result of the collapse of surface limestone.	No	Yes	No	No	Central America, especially the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico	Sacred Cenote
Chalk stream	A watercourse fed by water emerging from an aquifer through bedrock made of chalk.	Yes	Yes	No	No	England	the River Pang
Channel	A navigable waterway between two bodies of water; a wide strait.	No	No	No	No		the Beagle Channel
Cove	A small indentation of the shoreline of a larger body of water; a small bay.	No	No	No	No		ANZAC Cove
Creek	A watercourse, usually smaller than or a distributary to a river.	Yes	Yes	No	No	Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States	Aliso Creek
Distributary	A stream or river that branches off from a larger watercourse.	Yes	Varies	No	No		the Waal
Ditch or dyke	An artificially created narrow trench used for irrigation and/or drainage.	Varies	Yes	No	No		the Grand Ditch
Endorheic lake	A lake that instead of having an outflow has its' water level balanced entirely by evaporation and the inflow of water from its' endorheic basin.	No	Yes	Varies	No		Lake Chad
Estuary	A partially enclosed area at the outflow of one or more rivers where river currents meets and mixes with the tide.	No	No	No	No		Río de la Plata
Fen	A pet-forming wetland that relies on groundwater for inundation.	No	Yes	No	Yes		Wicken Fen
Firth	A narrow inlet on the coast of a sea.	No	No	No	No	Scotland	the Firth of Forth
Fjard or fiard	A broad and shallow inlet formed by withdrawing glaciers.	No	No	No	No	Sweden and Finland, mainly on the Baltic coast	Vårbyfjärden
Fjord or fiord	A narrow and deep inlet formed by withdrawing glaciers.	No	No	No	No	The Nordic countries, especially Norway	Lysefjorden
Flood meadow or floodplain meadow	A seasonally flooded area of treeless grassland.	No	Yes	Yes	No		the Mottey Meadows
Gulf	A large extension of sea or ocean that stretches deep into the bordering landmass.	No	No	No	No		the Gulf of Persia
Harbour	A coastal body of water that is partially enclosed, naturally or artificially, and where ships can be safely left.	No	No	No	No		Wellington Harbour
Hot spring	A naturally heated spring.	No	Yes	No	No		Sembawang Hot Spring Park
Inlet	A narrow indentation into the coastline of a larger body of water.	No	No	No	No		Bute Inlet
Kettle lake	A lake inside of a large rounded hole formed by glacial melt, a so-called kettle or pothole.	No	Yes	No	No		Kettle Mucubají
Kill	A stream, creek, river, or channel.	Varies	Varies	No	No	the United States, in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.	the West Kill
Lagoon or laguna	A shallow body of water that is partially or entirely separated from the sea by sandbanks, coral reef or similar features.	No	No	No	No		the Laguna Madre
Lake	A large inland body of water.	No	Yes	No	No		Ganoga Lake
Liman	A muddy lagoon.	No	No	No	No	the Black Sea	Tylihul Estuary
Loch or lough	A lake, inlet, arm of the sea or a bay that is almost enclosed by land.	No	No	No	No	Scotland, Ireland	Loch Ness
Mangrove forest or mangrove swamp	Saline or brackish coastal waters with mangroves growing in them.	No	Varies	No	Yes	the Tropics and the Subtropics	the Sundarbans
Marsh	A peat-forming wetland dominated by herbaceous plants.	No	Yes	No	Yes		Brandon Marsh
Mere	A lake or pond.	No	Yes	No	No	Great Britain	Cop Mere
Mire or peatland	A wetland where dead plant matter, known as peat, accumulates faster than it decays.	No	Yes	No	Yes	the Subarctic
Moat	A deep, wide channel, dug around a point of interest and filled with water in order to protect it from attack.	No	Yes	No	No		Matsumoto Castle
Nullah	A river or stream, often intermittent, in a ravine; an inlet; a drain.	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	India, Pakistan, Hong Kong	Buddha Nullah
Oasis	An area in a desert where groundwater reaches the surface, creating a small fertile patch of land.	No	Yes	No	No	the Middle East and North Africa	Kharga Oasis
Ocean	One of the major bodies of salty water that together cover approximately 71% of the Earth's surface or all of them as one single body of water.	No	No	No	No		the Atlantic Ocean
Oxbow lake	A body of water formed by a bend in a river that is bypassed by a cutoff being wholly separated from the river as a result of sediment deposition.	No	Yes	Varies	No		the Kanwar Taal
Pool	A small body of water.	No	Yes	Varies	No
Pond	A body of water, often artificial, that is smaller than a lake.	No	Yes	No	No		Brittas Pond
Puddle	A small, shallow pool of water.	No	Yes	Yes	No
Reach	An open stretch of water.	Varies	Yes	No	No		Hanford Reach
Reservoir	A lake or pond, often artificially created by a dam or other impoundment, that is used as a water storage.	No	Yes	No	No		Abberton Reservoir
Ria	An inlet formed by a rise in sea levels submerging a valley carved by a river.	No	No	No	No	China, Spain, especially in Galicia, Asturias, and the Basque Country China	Ria de Pontevedra
Rill or rivulet	A very small watercourse.	Yes	Yes	Varies	No
River	A large, natural stream of freshwater.	Yes	Yes	No	No		the Colorado River
Roadstead or roads	A sheltered area of water near a shore that is less enclosed by land than a harbour and where ships may anchor.	No	No	No	No		Hampton Roads
Run	A small stream, especially a swift one.	Yes	Yes	No	No		Scotch Run
Salt marsh	A wetland near the coast that gets flooded and drained by the tides of a nearby body of saltwater.	No	Yes	No	Yes		the Rann of Kutch
Sea	A large body of water, usually saline and connected to the oceans.	No	No	No	No		the Adriatic Sea
Seep	A small spring.	No	Yes	No	No
Slough	A wetland, often near an inlet or backwater.	No	Yes	No	Yes		the Columbia Slough
Sound	A long inlet; a channel connecting two large bodies of water or separating an island from the mainland.	No	No	No	No		Nootka Sound
Spring	A place where water emerges from the ground.	No	Yes	No	No		Eye of Kuruman
Strait	A narrow passage of water connecting two large bodies of water.	No	No	No	No		Foveaux Strait
Stream	A watercourse that is usually smaller than a river; a running body of water.	Yes	Yes	No	No		the Waiwhetū Stream
Subglacial lake	A lake that is permanently covered by ice and whose water remains liquid by the pressure of the ice sheet and geothermal heating.	No	Yes	No	No	Antarctica	Lake Vostok
Subterranean river	A river that runs underground.	Yes	Yes	No	No		the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River
Swamp	A wetland with many trees and shrubs.	No	Yes	No	Yes		Zapata Swamp
Tarn	A mountain lake formed in a cirque.	No	Yes	No	No		Malham Tarn
Tidal creek or tidal channel	A long, narrow and shallow inlet or estuary whose water level is noticeably affected by the tides.	No	No	Varies	No		Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek
Tide pool	A pool of seawater trapped in a rocky depression as the tide recedes from an area that is submerged at high tide.	No	No	No	No		the Flat Point Tide Pools
Tributary or affluent	A watercourse that flows into a larger stream or river.	Yes	Yes	No	No		the Willamette River
Vernal pool	An ephemeral wetland that forms seasonally by precipitation filling natural depressions in level ground, that flood seasonally to form wetland environments.	No	Yes	Yes	Yes		the Phoenix Vernal Pools
Wadi	A stream or river that only runs after heavy rain, usually only occurring during the rainy season.	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	North Africa and Arabia	Wadi Doan
Washland or washes	A area that is periodically flooded by a nearby stream or river, especially one that is allowed to do so for flood management or water storage purposes.	No	Yes	No	Varies		Ouse Washes
Watercourse	A running body of water.	Yes	Yes	Varies	No
Watering hole or waterhole	A natural depression where animals can drink accumulated water.	No	Yes	Varies	No
Well	A hole, usually man-made, with exposed groundwater at the bottom.	No	Yes	Varies	No		the Etruscan Well
Wetland	An area of land that is inundated by water.	No	Yes	No	Yes		the Bangweulu Wetlands
Winterbourne	An ephemeral stream that mostly, or only, flows during winter.	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Southern England	the River Lavant

Types

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