Basic Details
Word: Geographical
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: To do with geography: the land, rivers, mountains and climate of places, and where things are on the Earth.
How to Spell Geographical
Syllables: ge - o - graph - i - cal
Tricky part: It begins geo, with e before o, the f sound is spelt ph, and the ending is -ical. Each of these trips students up.
Watch out for: geografical, jeographical, geographycal
Memory tip: Geo means earth and graph means drawing: a geographical map is a drawing of the earth. Add -ical at the end.
Usage Examples
Example 1: India's geographical features include deserts, plateaus and long coastlines.
Example 2: The Western Ghats are a geographical barrier that stops the monsoon clouds.
Example 3: We studied the geographical spread of tea gardens in Assam.
Fun Fact
Darjeeling tea became the first Indian product to receive a Geographical Indication tag, in 2004, so only tea grown in that region may use the name.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Fill in the blanks with the correct letters:
ge_gra_h_cal
a) o, p, i
b) e, p, i
c) o, p, y
d) o, f, i
Show answer
a) o, p, i. Geo for earth, graph with ph, then -ical: o, p and i.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word:
1. climet 2. latitute 3. peninsulla 4. geographical
a) to do with the land, rivers and climate of places
b) land with water on three sides
c) the usual weather of a place over many years
d) distance north or south of the equator
Show answer
a) to do with the land, rivers and climate of places. Each of the others has one slip: latitude ends in -tude, climate in -ate, and peninsula needs just one l.
Mingle-Mangle
Unscramble the jumbled word in the sentence and choose the correct word:
The atlas shows the lagaripcoegh features of each state, such as rivers and plateaus.
a) geographic
b) geographical
c) biographical
d) typographical
Show answer
b) geographical. Biographical and typographical need letters such as b and y, and geographic is two letters short.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Rivers, plateaus and deserts are ____ features.
a) grammatical
b) medical
c) musical
d) geographical
Show answer
d) geographical
2. A geographer is a person who studies ____.
a) ancient languages
b) old coins
c) the Earth's land and places
d) the stars
Show answer
c) the Earth's land and places
