badlands

[bad-landz]

plural noun

1. a barren area in which soft rock strata are eroded into varied, fantastic forms.

badlands

/ ˈbædˌlændz /

plural noun

1. any deeply eroded barren area

Word History and Origins

Origin of badlands¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55; bad ¹ + land + -s ³; translation of French mauvaises terres, alluding to the difficulty in traversing such country

Example Sentences

Experts say most of the centres, notorious for their romance scams and "pig butchering" investment cons, are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar militias in the lawless badlands of the Golden Triangle.

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In the summer of 2022, two boys hiking with their father and a 7-year-old cousin in the North Dakota badlands came across some large bones poking out of a rock.

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“All the earth colors of the painter’s palette are out there in the many miles of badlands,” she wrote in an exhibition catalog in 1939.

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Here in Medora, a tiny town in the badlands of western North Dakota, Teddy Roosevelt is everywhere.

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California’s state park system offers 3,000 miles of trail and terrain from beaches to badlands, Joshua trees and more.

Read more on Los Angeles Times