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
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Region
Formal region
Uniform region
Functional/nodal region
perceptual/vernacular region
Scale (implied degree of generalization)
Size
Spatial (of or pertaining to space on or near Earth’s surface)
Spatial interaction
Accessibility
Connectivity
Network
Distance decay
Friction of distance
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
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Stages of Growth [Rostow]
Concentric Circle [Burgess]
Sector [Hoyt]
Multiple Nuclei
Central Place [Christaller]
Projection
Remote sensing
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
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Zero population growth
Migration
Activity space
Chain migration
Cyclic movement
Distance decay
Forced
Gravity model
Internal migration
Intervening opportunity
Migration patterns
Intercontinental Migration Patterns
Interregional migration patterns
Rural-urban migration patterns
Migratory movement
Periodic movement
Personal space
Place utility
Push-pull factors
Refugee
Space-time prism
Step migration
Transhumance
Transmigration
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
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Stimulus expansion
Relocation
Innovation adoption
Maladaptive diffusion
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
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Ethnic religion
Exclave/enclave
Fundamentalism
Geomancy (feng shui)
Hadj
Hinduism
Interfaith boundaries
Islam
Jainism
Judaism
Landscapes of the dead
Monotheism
polytheism
Mormonism
Muslim pilgrimage
Muslim population
Proselytic religion
Reincarnation
Religion (groups, places)
Religious architectural styles
Religious conflict
Religious culture hearth
Religious toponym
Sacred space
Secularism
Shamanism
Sharia law
Shintoism
Sikhism
Sunni/Shia
Taoism
Theocracy
Universalizing
Zoroastrianism
Ethnicity
Acculturation
Adaptive strategy
Assimilation
Barrio
Chain migration
Cultural adaptation
Cultural shatterbelt
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic conflict
Ethnic enclave
Ethnic group
Ethnic homeland
Ethnic landscape
Ethnic neighborhood
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Ethnicity
Ethnocentrism
Ghetto
Plural society
Race
Segregation
Social distance
Gender
Dowry death
Enfranchisement
Gender
Gender gap
Infanticide
Longevity gap
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
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City-state
Colonialism
Confederation
Conference of Berlin (1884)
Core/periphery
Decolonization
Devolution
Domino theory
EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)
Electoral regions
Enclave/exclave
Ethnic conflict
European Union
Federal
Forward capital
Frontier
Geopolitics
Gerrymander
Global commons
Heartland/rimland
Immigrant states
International organization
Iron Curtain
Irredentism
Israel/Palestine
Landlocked
Law of the Sea
Lebanon
Mackinder, Halford J.
Manifest destiny
Median-line principle
Microstate
Ministate
Nation
National iconography
Nation-state
Nunavut
Raison d’être
Reapportionment
Regionalism
Religious conflict
Reunification
Satellite state
Self-determination
Shatterbelt
Sovereignty
State
Stateless ethnic groups
Stateless nation
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Suffrage
Supranationalism
Territorial disputes
Territorial morphology
Compact morphology
Fragmented morphology
Elongated morphology
Prorupt morphology
perforated
Territoriality
Theocracy
Treaty ports
UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)
Unitary
USSR collapse
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
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Adaptive strategies
Agrarian
Agribusiness
Agricultural industrialization
Agricultural landscape
Agricultural location model
Agricultural origins
Agriculture
Animal domestication
Aquaculture
Biorevolution
Biotechnology
Collective farm
Commercial agriculture (intensive, extensive)
Core/periphery
Crop rotation
Cultivation regions
Dairying
Debt-for-nature swap
Diffusion
Double cropping
Primary Economic activity
Secondary Economic Activity
Tertiary Economic Activity
Quaternary economic activity
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Quinary economic activity
Environmental modification
Pesticides
Soil erosion
Desertification
Extensive subsistence agriculture
Shifting cultivation
Slash-and- burn
Milpa
Swidden
Nomadic herding
Pastoralism
Extractive industry
Farm crisis
Farming
Feedlot
First agricultural revolution
Fishing
Food chain
Forestry
Globalized agriculture
Green revolution
Growing season
Hunting and gathering
Intensive subsistence agriculture
Intertillage
Livestock ranching
Market gardening
Mediterranean agriculture
Mineral fuels
Mining
Planned economy
Plant domestication
Plantation agriculture
Renewable/nonrenewable
Rural settlement
Dispersed settlement
Nucleated settlement
Building material
Village form settlement
Sauer, Carl O.
Second agricultural revolution
Specialization
Staple grains
Suitcase farm
Survey patterns
Long lots
Metes
Bounds
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Township-and-range
Sustainable yield
Third agricultural revolution
Mechanization
chemical farming
Food manufacturing
“Tragedy of the commons”
Transhumance
Truck farm
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
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Canadian industrial heartland
Carrier efficiency
Comparative advantage
Cumulative causation
Deglomeration
Deindustrialization
Economic sectors
Economies of scale
Ecotourism
Energy resources
Entrepôt
Export processing zone
Fixed costs
Footloose industry
Four Tigers
Greenhouse effect
Growth poles
Heartland/rimland
Industrial location theory
Industrial regions (place, fuel source, characteristics)
Industrial Revolution
Industry (receding, growing)
Infrastructure
International division of labor
labor-intensive
Least-cost location
Major manufacturing regions
Manufacturing exports
Manufacturing/warehouse location
Industrial parks
Agglomeration
Shared services
Zoning
Transportation
Taxes
environmental considerations
Maquiladora
Market orientation
Multiplier effect
NAFTA
Outsourcing
Ozone depletion
Plant location (supplies, “just in time” delivery)
Postindustrial
Refrigeration
Resource crisis
Resource orientation
Special economic zones (China)
Specialized economic zones
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Substitution principle
Threshold/range
Time-space compression
Topocide
Trade (complementarity)
Transnational corporation
Ubiquitous
Variable costs
Weber, Alfred
Weight-gaining
Weight-losing
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
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Gender
Gentrification
Ghetto
Globalization
Great cities
High-tech corridors
Hinterland
Hydraulic civilization
Indigenous city
In-filling
Informal sector
Infrastructure
Inner city
Invasion and succession
Lateral commuting
Medieval cities
Megacities
Megalopolis
conurbation
Metropolitan area
Multiple nuclei model
Multiplier effect
Neighborhood
Office park
Peak land value intersection
Planned communities
Postindustrial city
Postmodern urban landscape
Primate city
Racial steering
Rank-size rule
Redlining
Restrictive covenants
Sector model
Segregation
Nucleated Settlement form
Dispersed settlement form
Elongated settlement Form
Shopping mall
Site/situation
Slum
Social structure
Specialization
Squatter settlement
Street pattern
Grid
Dendritic
Access
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
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Zoning