Meaning & use
topographical
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Relating to the physical shape of land, including hills, valleys, rivers and height above sea level, especially as shown on maps.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: a topographical map.
Patterns
- a topographical map
- topographical features
The hikers studied a topographical map before choosing a route.
Steep topographical features made the road expensive to build.
Engineers carried out a topographical survey of the site.
adjectivebefore a nounspecialist
Describing the arrangement or layout of parts in any system, such as a network or the surface of the body.
Grammar: A specialist extension, used in science and computing: a topographical layout.
Patterns
- a topographical layout
- topographical arrangement of something
The scientist drew the topographical layout of the brain's surface.
The software shows a topographical view of the network.
A topographical description of the wound helped the surgeon.
Common combinations
- topographical map
- A topographical map uses contour lines to show elevation.
- topographical survey
- The council ordered a topographical survey before building began.
- topographical features
- Rivers and ridges are the main topographical features here.
- topographical data
- Satellites collect topographical data for flood models.
Synonyms and how they differ
- geographical
- Geographical is much broader and covers places, climate and people, while topographical concentrates on land shape and surface features.
- cartographic
- Cartographic refers to making maps, whereas topographical refers to the land that the maps describe.
- physical
- Physical in geography contrasts with human features and is less precise than topographical, which stresses surface shape and height.
Word family
- topography noun
- the shape and features of land, or the study of them
- topographer noun
- a person who maps land features
- topographically adverb
- in terms of surface shape
- topographic adjective
- a variant of topographical
Commonly confused: topographical or typographical? topographical or topological?
topographical vs typographical
Typographical relates to printing and lettering, as in a typographical error, while topographical relates to land.
topographical vs topological
Topological belongs to mathematics and describes properties of shapes that survive stretching, not mapped land.
Practice
A topographical map is mainly designed to show what?
Choose one answer.
Topographical refers to the shape and height of land. Typing mistakes would be typographical, and the other options belong to other kinds of maps.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “topographical”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.