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Glite Dictionary
Badlands

Badlands

7.7
A dry area with few plants and worn away rock shapes
  • noun
  • /ˈbædˌlændz/
translation icon : Badlands
  • We can drive up the side roads, end up in the Badlands which should have been a hint but end up getting stuck in a snow drift.

Now I'm going away for five weeks, going up to South Dakota, going to Mount Rushmore, maybe the Badlands or Wyoming.

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Examples

  • Deep in the Badlands, Gorfang Rotgut, master of Black Crack, challenges his superiority.

  • THE BADLANDS - DAY

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The photographer captured stunning landscapes in the Badlands as the sun set behind the unique rock formations.

  • Hiking in the Badlands revealed breathtaking views that showcased the area's dramatic topography and rugged beauty.

  • Visitors to the Badlands can explore the vast expanses of eroded cliffs and canyons that dominate the scenery.

Synonyms

wasteland
vsBadlands
58 4.9

A large empty area of land with no plants or people

is narrower referring to a particular eroded region rather than any barren land
Bad Lands
vsBadlands
1 6.8

A dry area of eroded rock with few plants in western South Dakota and Nebraska

is identical in meaning but written as two words

Surface Forms

Badlands singular
Badlands plural

Morphology

Badlands = bad + land (transparent) = bad + land + s

The term is a straightforward compound 'bad' + 'land' (pluralized), meaning barren or undesirable land; the connection to the components is direct.

Etymology

Badlands comes from the simple English parts bad and lands, a name early people gave to ground that was 'bad' for farming because it is dry, rocky and worn away. So, Badlands now means a wild, barren area with little plant life and strange rock shapes.