badlands

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badlands^¹

/ˈbæd.lændz/

Where it comes from

From earlier Bad Lands, calque of Canadian French mauvaises terres à traverser (“bad lands to cross”), itself a calque of Lakota Makȟóšiča (from makȟá (“land”) + o- (attributive prefix) + šíča (“bad”)).

noun badlands · badland · Bad Lands

An arid terrain characterized by severe erosion of sedimentary rocks. Not only do the Bad Lands present a most attractive field to the student of erosion and of the origin of earth forms, but their deathlike solitudes have been made to yield the most wonderful procession of strange extinct animals yet unearthed by geologists.
Similar: malpais
An arid region of Western Canada characterized by significant erosion and odd land formations containing dinosaur and other fossils.

Badlands^²

proper noun

Badlands National Park, a national park in South Dakota.

Translations

Every language

noun arid terrain with severely eroded sedimentary rocks

Español	malpaís, tierras baldías, badlands, tierras yermas
한국어	악지 akji
Français	Mauvaises Terres, badlands
Deutsch	Badlands
Italiano	calanco
Русский	бедленд bedlend
العربية	وَعْر waʕr

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MLA

"badlands." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/badlands. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

badlands. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/badlands

Chicago

"badlands." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/badlands.

BibTeX

@misc{badlands_2026,
  title = {badlands},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/badlands},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}