Lake, a sizable inland body of standing water. Not having a precise meaning, the word lake has been applied to many different bodies of water. It is usually applied to natural inland waters such as Lake Michigan, but it is also used for many man-made reservoirs, such as Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam. The word is sometimes loosely applied to coastal bodies of water, examples being Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela and Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. Widened parts of rivers are occasionally called lakes. An example is Lake Pepin on the Mississippi between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Some large bodies of water that are really lakes are commonly called seas. These include the Aral, Caspian, and Dead seas in southwestern Asia and the Salton Sea in California.
Lakes are major natural resources. Large lakes, such as the Great Lakes of North America, have a tempering influence on the local weather. They provide low-cost transportation, supply water for homes and industries, and offer a wide variety of recreational facilities. Lakes provide water for irrigation systems and water power projects. Some lakes support important commercial fisheries.
