What's the difference..............?

Question

when does a wood become a forest, likewise a pond into a lake?

Answer 1

There is no objectively defined difference between a pond and a lake. A pond is usually man-made and may be privately owned, but it is basically just a body of water that is smaller than a lake, and the distinction is arbitrary. Likewise, a "woods" usually refers to a smaller, privately owned wooded area, while a forest is larger and contains a fully developed habitat.

Answer 2

I think it's a matter of size. I'm not sure it's got a strict definition. A lake is larger than a pond. A forest is larger than a wood. It's not like village, town, city, which--at least in the US--have a strict definition based on population.

In the past, however, there were strict definitions. In medieval England, a wood was a place maintained as a source of lumber, firewood, charcoal, etc.; whereas a forest was a private reserve for hunting. Hence the prohibition of killing the King's deer in Sherwood Forest, a la Errol Flynn as Robin Hood. The deer in a wood would be available for hunting, but the deer in a forest were protected.

The words, to some extent, reflect this. Wood is from the Middle English wod (pronounced wode), which means tree. Today we use the same word for the resource from trees (wood) and the place where they are grown (woods). On the other hand, forest comes from the Latin foris, which means "outside."

Answer 3

There are no official definitions, and everybody will have their own criteria.
Mr.perfesser's rules of thumb:
1. If you can walk into the wood early in the morning, walk in a straight line, and not walk out by sunset, and not see any buildings, it is a forest. You can choose the direction to walk, so it can be a long, narrow forest.

2. If a pond has more than a mile of shoreline, you can call it a lake.

Answer 4

Wood - a dense growth of trees usually greater in extent than a grove and smaller than a forest -- often used in plural but singular or plural in construction.

Forest - a dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large tract
2 : a tract of wooded land in England formerly owned by the sovereign and used for game.

Not clear at all really. All very subjective.

Pond - Middle English ponde artificially confined body of water, probably alteration of pounde enclosure : a body of water usually smaller than a lake.

Lake - a considerable inland body of standing water.

I think the difference here is clearer - a pond being artificially confined where as one takes a lake to be natural, however I have no doubt that others will disagree.

Answer 5

Though not generally accepted, some regions of the United States define a pond as a body of water with a surface area of less than ten acres (40,000 square metres).

Answer 6

You pleb, work it out. you cant fit a forest in a wood. You cant fit a lake into a pond and neither you jerk can you fit a ship into a boat.

Answer 7

I like the answer Scot D gave. If we thought about it there are probably a whole lot more. Life is full of mysteries.

Answer 8

When does a boulder become a rock? When does a rock become a pebble? When does large become huge. These are subjective.

Answer 9

That is for me an ocean of jungles.
Could it be size?

Th

Answer 10

i agree with everything the 1st guy said.