Most waterfall names are built the same way: a local word for "waterfall" plus the name of the river, a person, a legend or a shape. Once you recognise the waterfall word, names that look exotic become obvious — Skógafoss is simply "the waterfall of the Skógá river".
The waterfall word, language by language
| Word | Language | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| foss / fossen | Icelandic, Norwegian | Skógafoss, Gullfoss, Dettifoss, Svartifoss, Vøringsfossen, Kjelfossen |
| force | Northern English, from Old Norse fors | High Force, Aira Force |
| falls / fall | English | Victoria Falls, Niagara Falls, Nevada Fall |
| salto | Spanish (Venezuela, Chile, Uruguay), Portuguese | Salto Ángel, Salto del Laja, Salto Grande, Salto do Yucumã |
| cascada / catarata | Spanish | Catarata del Gocta, Cascada de Tamul, Catarata Río Fortuna |
| cataratas | Spanish / Portuguese, used for big systems | Cataratas del Iguazú / Cataratas do Iguaçu |
| cachoeira / salto | Brazilian Portuguese | Cachoeira da Fumaça, Salto do Itiquira |
| chute | French (Quebec, Africa) | Chute Montmorency, Chutes d'Ekom |
| Wasserfall / -fall / -fälle | German | Rheinfall, Reichenbachfall, Krimmler Wasserfälle |
| slap | Slovene, Croatian, Bosnian | Slap Savica, Slap Boka, Roški slap at Krka |
| buk | Croatian (a travertine cascade) | Skradinski Buk |
| vodopad | Croatian, Bosnian, Russian and other Slavic languages | Vodopad Kravica |
| tad / tat | Lao | Tat Kuang Si, Tad Fane |
| thác | Vietnamese | Thác Bản Giốc, Thác Pongour |
| nam tok | Thai | Nam Tok Erawan, Nam Tok Pha Charoen |
| air terjun / coban | Indonesian / Javanese | Air Terjun Sekumpul, Coban Sewu |
| pubu | Chinese (瀑布) | Huangguoshu Pubu, Hukou Pubu |
| taki / -daki | Japanese (滝) | Kegon-no-taki, Nachi-no-taki, Fukuroda-no-taki |
| şelale | Turkish | Düden Şelalesi |
| waterval | Afrikaans, Dutch | common on South African signs |
Why some English waterfalls are called "force"
In the Lake District, the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales, waterfalls are often "forces": High Force, Aira Force, Stock Ghyll Force. The word comes from Old Norse fors, brought by Scandinavian settlers more than a thousand years ago — the same root as the Icelandic and Norwegian foss. A "force" in northern England and a "foss" in Iceland are the same word, a thousand kilometres and a millennium apart.
Where the rest of the name comes from
- The river. Skógafoss (Skógá), Rhine Falls, Tugela (Thukela), Iguazú.
- A person. Victoria Falls, named by David Livingstone for Queen Victoria; Angel Falls, for the aviator Jimmie Angel, who landed on the tepui above it in 1937; Sutherland Falls, for the prospector who found it.
- A description. Gullfoss is "golden falls", Svartifoss "black falls" for its dark basalt, and Victoria Falls' older name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, means "the smoke that thunders".
- A legend. Goðafoss, the "waterfall of the gods", and Erawan, named for the three-headed elephant of Hindu myth said to be visible in its top tier.
An A–Z of famous waterfall names
Every waterfall in our index, alphabetically, with its country and height: the A–Z list of waterfalls. For the biggest, see the tallest and the widest; for the vocabulary of shapes — plunge, horsetail, cataract — see the eight types of waterfall.
