موج
موج (mowj) means wave in Persian, borrowed from Arabic. It covers everything from sea waves to sound waves and figurative surges. Widely used in both everyday speech and scientific contexts.
Glossary
خلیج
خلیج (khalij) means gulf or bay in Persian, borrowed from Arabic. It names a body of water where the sea extends into land. The Persian Gulf, خلیج فارس, is the most politically charged use of this word.
مرداب
مرداب (mordâb) means lagoon or stagnant marsh in Persian. A transparent compound of morde (dead) and âb (water), describing a body of still, slow-moving water. Compare with باتلاق for murkier swampland.
باتلاق
باتلاق (bâtlâq) means swamp or marsh in Persian. Borrowed from Turkic, it describes waterlogged ground where movement is dangerous. Close in meaning to مرداب but murkier and more treacherous.
برکه
برکه (berke) means pond or small pool of still water. Borrowed from Arabic بركة (birka), it is more formal than everyday speech and appears mainly in written Persian and descriptions of traditional architecture.
دریاچه
دریاچه (daryâche) means lake. Built from دریا (sea) with a Persian diminutive suffix, it literally means a small sea. Iran’s Lake Urmia is the most famous example, once the largest lake in the Middle East.
چشمه
چشمه (cheshme) means a natural spring or water source, where water bubbles up from the ground. The word shares a root with چشم (eye), capturing the image of water rising like an eye opening in the earth.
آبشار
آبشار (âbshâr) means waterfall. A pure Persian compound of âb (water) and shâr (flow), it describes any cascade of falling water from small mountain streams to dramatic natural falls.
گلولای
گلولای (gel-o-lây) means mud or sludge, the wet, sticky mixture of soil and water. A colloquial compound used when describing messy, muddy ground after rain.
شن
شن (shen) means sand, the loose granular material found on beaches, in deserts, and riverbeds. One of the oldest Persian nature words, unchanged from classical to modern usage.