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Wordbay · Travel & places

Words for travel and places

For journeys, landscapes and the people who wander: words about setting off, arriving and the places in between.

Everyday (20)

  • contraband noun. Goods brought into or out of a country illegally.
  • embark verb. To go on board a ship or aircraft.
  • estuary noun. The wide mouth of a river, where its fresh water meets the tide.
  • excursion noun. A short trip, usually for pleasure and often with a group.
  • expatriate noun. Someone who lives outside their own country.
  • gallivant verb. To wander from place to place in search of fun.
  • hinterland noun. The land behind a coast or river, or far from the cities.
  • itinerary noun. A planned route or schedule for a journey.
  • jaunt noun. A short trip taken for fun.
  • layover noun. A stop between parts of a journey, especially between flights.
  • locale noun. A place where something happens or where a story is set.
  • nomad noun. A member of a people who move from place to place, often with their herds.
  • odyssey noun. A long journey full of adventures and setbacks.
  • picturesque adjective. Pretty enough to be painted, especially in an old-fashioned way.
  • secluded adjective. Quiet, private and hidden away from other people.
  • sojourn noun. A temporary stay somewhere away from home.
  • trek noun. A long, hard journey, especially on foot.
  • tundra noun. A vast, treeless Arctic plain whose ground below the surface stays frozen all year.
  • vista noun. A long, pleasing view, especially one seen through an opening.
  • wanderlust noun. A strong urge to travel and see the world.

Well-read (24)

  • antipodean adjective. From Australia or New Zealand, seen from Britain as the far side of the world.
  • archipelago noun. A group of islands scattered across a stretch of sea.
  • becalmed adjective. Of a sailing boat, stuck and unable to move because there is no wind.
  • bivouac noun. A rough camp with little or no tent, usually for a single night.
  • bucolic adjective. Charmingly rural, in the way of the countryside and farm life.
  • circumnavigate verb. To sail or travel all the way round something, especially the world.
  • cosmopolitan adjective. Full of people and influences from many countries.
  • environs noun. The area surrounding a place.
  • fernweh noun. An ache for faraway places you have never been.
  • flâneur noun. Someone who strolls about a city at leisure, idly watching its life.
  • hostelry noun. An inn or pub (an old-fashioned or jokey word).
  • insular adjective. Interested only in your own small world and wary of outsiders.
  • itinerant adjective. Travelling from place to place, often to find or do work.
  • littoral adjective. Of or on the shore of the sea or a lake.
  • meander verb. To follow a winding, looping course.
  • perambulate verb. To walk about in an unhurried way.
  • peripatetic adjective. Travelling from place to place, or working in several places in turn.
  • salubrious adjective. Good for the health; or, of a place, pleasant, clean and respectable.
  • scree noun. A slope of loose, broken stones on a mountainside or below a cliff.
  • sequestered adjective. Hidden away from others; quiet and remote.
  • topography noun. The shape and physical features of an area of land.
  • traverse verb. To travel across or through an area.
  • vagabond noun. Someone who wanders from place to place with no settled home or job.
  • wayfarer noun. A traveller on foot.

Advanced (12)

  • anabasis noun. A journey or military advance from the coast into the interior.
  • caravanserai noun. An inn built round a courtyard, where caravans rested on the old desert trade routes.
  • demonym noun. A word for the people of a place, such as Mancunian or Glaswegian.
  • exonym noun. A name for a place used by outsiders rather than by the people who live there.
  • gazetteer noun. A dictionary or index of place names, often with where to find each on a map.
  • genius loci phrase. The distinctive atmosphere or spirit of a place.
  • gongoozler noun. Someone who idly watches boats on a canal, especially as they go through the locks.
  • peregrination noun. A long, wandering journey, especially in foreign lands.
  • toponym noun. A place name, especially one that comes from a feature of the landscape.
  • transhumance noun. The seasonal moving of herders and their animals between summer and winter pastures.
  • viaticum noun. Money or supplies for a journey.
  • wanderjahr noun. A year of travel and wandering, especially before settling into a career.