AP Human Geography Terms Part 2 - C

Centrifugal force

A cultural value that tends to pull people apart.

Centripetal force

A cultural value that tends to unify people.

Cereal grain

A grass that yields grain for food.

Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)

A gas used as a solvent, a propellant in aerosols, a refrigerant, and in plastic foams and fire extinguishers.

Choropleth map

A map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the variable.

Circular migration

The temporary movement of a migrant worker between home and host countries to seek employment.

Circulation

Short-term, repetitive, or cyclical movements that recur on a regular basis.

Citizen science

Scientific research by amateur scientists.

City-state

A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediately surrounding countryside.

Climate

The long-term average weather condition at a particular location.

Clustered rural settlement

A rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other, with fields surrounding the settlement.

Colonialism

An attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory.

Colony

A territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than completely independent.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants and animals, as well as people, culture, and technology, between the Western Hemisphere and Europe, as a result of European colonialization and trade.

Combined statistical area (CSA)

In the United States, two or more contiguous core-based statistical areas tied together by commuting patterns.

Commercial agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.

Commercial (or market) gardening and fruit farming

Relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables, and other horticulture.

Compact state

A state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly.

Concentration

The extent of a feature's spread over a given area.

Concentric zone model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.

Congregation

A local assembly of persons brought together for common religious worship.

Connection

The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

Conservation

The sustainable management of a natural resource to meet human needs.

Conservation tillage

A method of soil cultivation that reduces soil erosion and runoff.

Consumer service

A business that provides services primarily to individual consumers, including retail services and education, health, and leisure services.

Consumptive water usage

The use of water that evaporates rather than being returned to nature as a liquid.

Contagious diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

Informally Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The time in the zone encompassing the prime meridian, or 0° longitude.

Core-based statistical area (CBSA)

In the United States, the collection of all metropolitan statistical areas and micropolitan statistical areas.

Cosmogony

A set of beliefs concerning the origin of the universe.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing based in homes rather than in factories, most common prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Counterurbanization

Net migration from urban to rural areas in developed countries.

Creole (or creolized) language

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Crop

Any plant gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season.

Crop rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil.

Crude birth rate (CBR)

The total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.

Crude death rate (CDR)

The total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.

Cultural ecology

A geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships.

Cultural homogenization

The process of reduction in cultural diversity through the diffusion of popular culture.

Cultural landscape

An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area.

Culture

The body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitutes the distinct tradition of a group of people.

Custom

The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act.

Cyber espionage

The unauthorized and clandestine deployment of a virus to observe or destroy data in the computer systems of government agencies and large corporations.

Dairy farm

A form of commercial agriculture that specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products.

Demand

The quantity of something that people wish to consume and are able to buy.

Democracy

A country in which citizens elect leaders and can run for office.

Demographic transition

The process of change in a society's population from a condition of high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and higher total population.

Demography

The scientific study of population characteristics.

Denglish

A combination of Deutsch (the German word for German) and English.

Denomination

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations into a single legal and administrative body.

Density

The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area.

Density gradient

The change in density in an urban area from the center to the periphery.

Dependency ratio

The number of people under age 15 and over age 64 compared to the number of people active in the labor force.

Desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions such as excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

Developed country

A country that has progressed relatively far along a continuum of development.

Developing country

A country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of development.

Developing language

A language in daily use with a literary tradition that is not widely distributed.

Development

A process of improvement in the conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.