AP Human Geography Part 5 - C

Lingua franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.

Literacy rate

The percentage of a country's people who can read and write.

Literary tradition

A language that is written as well as spoken.

Lithosphere

Earth's crust and a portion of upper mantle directly below the crust.

Location

The position of anything on Earth's surface.

Logogram

A symbol that represents a word rather than a sound.

Longitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian (0°).

Lunar calendar

A calendar with months that correspond to cycles of moon phases.

Lunisolar calendar

A calendar with lunar months that are brought into alignment with the solar year through some process.

Malware (or malicious software)

Hostile or intrusive software designed to cause intentional harm.

Map

A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth's surface or a portion of it.

Map scale

The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface.

Maquiladora

A factory built by a U.S. company in Mexico near the U.S. border, to take advantage of the much lower labor costs in Mexico.

Market area (or hinterland)

The area surrounding a central place from which people are attracted to use the place's goods and services.

Mashup

A map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service.

Maternal mortality rate

The annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes).

Medical revolution

Medical technology invented in Europe and North America that has diffused to the poorer countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Improved medical practices have eliminated many of the traditional causes of death in poorer countries and enabled more people to live longer and healthier lives.

Megacity

An urban settlement with a total population in excess of 10 million people.

Megalopolis

A continuous urban complex in the northeastern United States.

Meme

Contagious diffusion through the Internet or social media.

Mental map

A representation of a portion of Earth's surface based on what an individual knows about a place that contains personal impressions of what is in the place and where the place is located.

Meridian

An arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles.

Metacity

An urban settlement with a total population in excess of 20 million people.

Metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

In the United States, an urbanized area of at least 50,000 population, the county within which the city is located, and adjacent counties meeting one of several tests indicating a functional connection to the central city.

Microfinance

Provision of small loans and financial services to individuals and small businesses in developing countries.

Micropolitan statistical area (USA)

An urbanized area of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, the county in which it is located, and adjacent counties tied to the city.

Microstate

A state that encompasses a very small land area.

Migration

A form of relocation diffusion involving a permanent move to a new location.

Migration transition

A change in the migration pattern in a society that results from industrialization, population growth, and other social and economic changes that also produce the demographic transition.

Milkshed

The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

Millennium Development Goals

Fight goals adopted by the UN in 2002 to reduce disparities between developed and developing countries by 2015.

Missionary

An individual who helps to diffuse a universalizing religion.

Mixed crop and livestock farming

Commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock: most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans.

Mobility

All types of movements between locations.

Monocropping

The practice of growing the same single crop year after year.

Monotheism

The doctrine of or belief in the existence of only one God.

Multinational state

A state that contains two or more cultural groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities.

Multiple nuclei model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities.

Mutual intelligibility

The ability of people communicating in two ways to readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort.

Nation

A large group of people who are united by common cultural characteristics, such as language and ethnicity, or by shared history.

Nation-state

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular nation.

Nationalism

Loyalty and devotion to a particular nationality.

Nationality

Identity with a group of people who share legal attachment to a particular country.

Natural increase rate (NIR)

The percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate.

Net migration

The difference between the level of immigration and the level of emigration.

Network

A chain of communication that connects places.

New international division of labor

Transfer of some types of jobs, especially those requiring low-paid, less-skilled workers, from more developed to less developed countries.

No tillage

A farming practice that leaves all of the soil undisturbed and the entire residue of the previous year's harvest left untouched on the fields.

Nonbasic business

A business that sells its products primarily to consumers in the community.

Nonconsumptive water usage

The use of water that is returned to nature as a liquid.

Nonpoint-source pollution

Pollution that originates from a large, diffuse area.

Nonrenewable energy

A source of energy that has a finite supply capable of being exhausted.

Nonrenewable resource

A resource that is produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans.

Official language

The language adopted for use by a government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

Organic agriculture

Farming that depends on the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances, such as herbicides, pesticides and growth hormones.

Outsourcing

A decision by a corporation to turn over much of the responsibility for production to independent suppliers.

Overfishing

Capturing fish faster than they can reproduce.