badlands
/ˈbæd.lændz/noun
badlands is spelled B-A-D-L-A-N-D-S: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, badlands means “An arid terrain characterized by severe erosion of sedimentary rocks” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in badlands?
| Letters | 8: B-A-D-L-A-N-D-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is badlands?
Badlands appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce badlands?
- /ˈbæd.lændz/
Badlands has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of badlands
- badland
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does badlands mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An arid terrain characterized by severe erosion of sedimentary rocks.
- 2
An arid region of Western Canada characterized by significant erosion and odd land formations containing dinosaur and other fossils.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Badlands in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense arid terrain with severely eroded sedimentary rocks:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | Mauvaises Terres, badlands |
| German | Badlands |
| Spanish | malpaís, tierras baldías, badlands, tierras yermas |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does badlands come 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”)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).