Lower Pottsgrove Elementary

4^th Grade Social Studies Curriculum Vocabulary

Bay – A body of water partially surrounded by land but open to the sea.

Border – A line that separates political regions, such as states or countries.

Boycott – A kind of protest in which people refuse to do business with a person or company.

Cape – A point of land that sticks out into the water.

Capital – A city where a state or country’s government is located.

Civil rights – The rights that every citizen has by law.

Climate – The usual weather conditions in an area over a long period of time.

Coast – The land that borders an ocean.

Coastal plain – The flat, level land along a coast.

Command economy – A system in which the government decides what to make, who will make it, and who will get it.

Compass rose – A symbol on a map that shows direction.

Consumer – Someone who buys or uses goods and services.

Continent – A large mass of land.

Cost of Living – The money that people pay for food, clothing, transportation, and housing.

Crops – Plants that people grow and gather.

Delta – A triangle – shaped area at a mouth of a river.

Democracy – A system in which the people hold the power of government.

Discrimination – The act of treating a person or group unfairly.

Economy – The way the people of an area choose to use the area’s resources.

Enslaved – A word used to describe someone who works for no pay and can be sold as property.

Entrepreneur – A person who uses the factors of production to start a new business.

Fact – A statement that can be proven true.

Factors of Production – People and materials needed to make goods or provide services.

Factory – A building or groups of buildings in which goods are made.

Fertile – Filled with the materials that plants need to grow.

Flow Resources – Energy sources that constantly move through the environment such as water, wind and sunlight.

Fossil Fuels – An energy source formed by the remains of things that lived long ago.

Free Enterprise – A system that lets people control their business and decide what goods to buy and sell.

Globe – A model of the Earth.

Goods – Things that people buy and sell, including both manufactured and agricultural products.

Government – A system of making and carrying out rules and laws.

Governor – The chief executive of the state.

Hub – A major center of activity.

Human Resources – The services, knowledge, skills, and intelligence, that workers provide.

Immigration – The movement of people from one nation to another.

Import – A product brought in from another country.

Industry – A business that makes goods in a factory.

Interior – A place away from the coast or border.

Irrigation – Supplying land with water.

Landform – A physical feature of Earth’s surface.

Latitude – Distance north or south of the equator, measured by lines that circle the globe parallel to the equator.

Levee – A high river bank that stops the river from overflowing.

Livestock – Animals that people raise on farms, especially animals raised to sell.

Longitude – Distance east or west of the prime meridian, measured by lines that run between the North and South poles.

Lumber – Wood cut into boards.

Manufacturing – Making goods from other materials.

Market Economy – A system in which people are free to decide what, how, and for whom to make products.

Mining – Taking minerals from the Earth.

Natural Resources – Things from the natural environment that people use.

Nonrenewable resources – Things that nature cannot replace after they are used.

Opportunity Cost – What someone gives up to get something else.

Peninsula – A piece of land surrounded by water on three sides.

Plains – Large areas of flat lands.

Plantation – A big farm that grows mostly one crop.

Plateau – A high, flat area of land.

Population – The people living in an area.

Port – A place along the shore of a lake or an ocean where ships can dock.

Precipitation – Water that falls to the earth as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Primary Source – An account written by someone who saw the event.

Prime Meridian – A line at 0 degrees longitude that divides Earth into Eastern and Western hemispheres.

Private ownership – A system in which individual people, not the government, own the factors of production.

Producer – Someone who makes or sells goods or services for customers.

Product – Something that is made from natural resources.

Profit – In a market economy, the money left over after a business pays its expenses.

Ranch – A farm where people raise animals, such as cattle, sheep, or horses.

Raw Materials – Natural resources before they are made into products.

Region – An area that is defined by certain features.

Renewable resources – Things that the environment can replace after we use them.

Rural – In a country area with few people.

Scale – A ruler that shows distances on a map.

Scarcity – A situation in which there are not enough resources to provide a product or service that people want.

Secondary source – An account written by someone who did not witness the event.

Service – Something a person or company does for someone else.

Slavery – An unjust system in which one person owns another.

Suburb – A community that grows outside of a larger city.

Suburban – In a smaller town near a city.

Supply – How much of a product producers will make at different prices.

Tax – A fee paid to the government.

Temperate – Without extremes, such as the very cold weather in the Arctic or the very hot weather near the equator.

Textile – Cloth.

Trade – The exchange, purchase, or sale of goods and services.

Transportation – The business of moving people or goods from one place to another.

Treaty – An official document that defines an agreement between nations.

Urban – In a city.

Wages – The payments people receive for work.