geography
Pluralgeographies
- 1The study of the earth's physical features and of the ways people both shape them and are shaped by them.
He earned a degree in geography before joining an urban planning firm.
Geography helps explain why cities tend to grow along rivers and coastlines.
Note
The name came before the modern discipline. It passed through Middle French géographie and Latin from Greek geōgraphía, 'a description of the earth', built from gê 'earth' and gráphō 'write'. As a school subject it is uncountable: basic geography, a degree in geography. Mark Steyn, writing in 2021, could even joke about children sneaking behind the bike shed for 'a little bit of closeted geography', as if the subject were contraband.
- 2The physical features and terrain of a particular region of the earth.
Norway's rugged geography forces highways through long tunnels and over high bridges.
The geography of the basin, ringed by mountains, traps polluted air over the city.
Similarterrain, topography, landscape
Note
Here the word moves from the study to the ground itself. It usually takes the pattern 'the geography of' plus a place, and it often appears where the land gets in people's way. Helen Miller Bailey and Abraham Phineas Nasatir's Latin America (1973) describes how the geography of the Andes approaches made routes to Bogota, Quito and La Paz so steep that inland cities were slow to grow.
- 3Any subject considered in terms of how it is spread across physical space.
The book traces the geography of jazz from New Orleans clubs to Chicago studios.
Economists study the geography of innovation, asking why startups cluster in certain cities.
Similardistribution, spread
- 4The relative arrangement of the parts of anything, whether physical or abstract.
Critics have mapped the geography of the novel, tracing where its plotlines intersect.
Anyone navigating the geography of corporate power soon learns which offices actually make decisions.
Similarstructure, layout, arrangement, configuration, landscape
Note
The figurative extension of the layout of a place: the way the parts of something abstract fit together. A mind, a novel or an institution can each have a geography. The word usually appears in 'the geography of' plus an abstract noun, and it suggests that the subject can be mapped, even when the map is still unfinished, as with 'the murderous mind'.
- 5The physical arrangement or layout of a place, especially, in British slang, the layout of a house.
Nurses new to the ward spend their first shift learning its geography.
Let me show you the geography of the house. The kitchen is through there.
Similarlayout, arrangement, plan
Note
The layout you have to learn in order to find your way around a place: a ward, an office, a building. In British slang it applies particularly to a house. It nearly always comes with 'the' or a possessive, often after verbs of learning or showing: learn its geography, show someone the geography of the house.
- 6A region or territory treated as a field of business or a market sector.
Revenue grew in every geography except Latin America last quarter.
The firm reorganized its sales force by geography rather than by product line.
Similarregion, territory, market, area
Note
Corporate usage makes the word freely countable, and the plural geographies is its signature: firms operate in 'various geographies' and report results by geography. In this register a geography is a market region on an organization chart, not a stretch of land. Outside business writing the plural can sound like jargon, so region or market usually reads more plainly.
- 7The study, description, or surface features of a planet other than the earth.
Orbital mapping has transformed our knowledge of the geography of Mars.
Radar surveys through Venus's clouds revealed a geography of volcanic plains and highland plateaus.
Similartopography, terrain, landscape
Note
Astronomers keep the word even though its root names the earth, so Mars and Venus are said to have a geography. It covers both the study and the surface being studied, and it usually appears as 'the geography of' followed by the name of the body. The earthbound origin explained under the academic subject is simply set aside.
- 8A polite, indirect word for the lavatory, used chiefly in upper-class British speech.
Forgive me. Might I trouble you for directions to the geography?
He excused himself to visit the geography before the port was served.
Similarlavatory, loo, toilet, WC
Note
A coy upper-class British way of asking for the lavatory without naming it. It always takes the article and usually comes in a question about where to find it. In a 1967 issue of The Listener, the line 'I say, where's the geography, old son?' is given to a 'Business Man Jocular'. That suggests the word already sounded like hearty banter, so use it only where that joke will land.
Less common meanings
- 9A treatise or textbook giving a description of the earth and its regions.
Every parlor shelf in the village held a hymnal, an almanac, and a geography.
Travelers of that era consulted geographies that mixed careful observation with pure legend.
Note
Here the Greek 'earth-writing' is taken almost literally: the word names a book that describes the world. Peter Heylyn's Microcosmus (1621) defines Geographie, following Ptolemy, as 'an imitation of the picture of the whole Earth', meaning the globe rather than earth as an element. The sense is archaic and countable. Today a geography textbook or a world survey does the same job.
- 10An atlas or gazetteer; a reference volume of maps or place names.
Before setting out, the surveyor checked the county's boundaries in his geography.
Old geographies in the library still show empires that vanished a century ago.
Note
In older writing, a geography on the shelf may be a book of maps or a gazetteer of place names rather than the subject itself. Here the word is countable, taking an article and a plural (his geography, old geographies), and that is the quickest clue in a period text. Unlike the descriptive treatise, this is a book you look things up in rather than read through. In modern prose, say atlas or gazetteer.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of geography apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
It came through Middle French géographie and Latin geōgraphia from Ancient Greek γεωγραφία (geōgraphía, “a description of the earth”), formed from γῆ (gê, “earth”) plus γράφω (gráphō, “write”). Its use for lavatories comes from a mid-20th-century euphemism, “show one the geography of the house,” meaning to point out the toilets.