Creek vs. Bayou — What's the Difference?

A member of a Native American people formerly inhabiting eastern Alabama, southwest Georgia, and northwest Florida and now located in central Oklahoma and southern Alabama. The Creek were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s.

In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area, and may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream or river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), a marshy lake or wetland or a creek whose current reverses daily due to tides, and which contains brackish water highly conducive to fish life and plankton. Bayous are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States, especially in the Mississippi River Delta.

The Muskogean language of the Creek.

A body of water, such as a creek or small river, that is a tributary of a larger body of water.

A Native American confederacy made up of the Creek and various smaller southeast tribes.

A sluggish stream that meanders through lowlands, marshes, or plantation grounds.

A member of this confederacy. In all senses also called Muskogee1.

A slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.

A small stream, often a shallow or intermittent tributary to a river. Also called regionally branch, brook1, kill2, run.

A swamp; a marshy (stagnant) body of water.

A channel or stream running through a salt marsh

An inlet from the Gulf of Mexico, from a lake, or from a large river, sometimes sluggish, sometimes without perceptible movement except from tide and wind.

Chiefly British A small inlet in a shoreline, extending farther inland than a cove.

A swampy arm or slow-moving outlet of a lake (term used mainly in Mississippi and Louisiana)

(British) A small inlet or bay, often saltwater, narrower and extending farther into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river; the inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.

A stream of water (often freshwater) smaller than a river and larger than a brook; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water.

Any turn or winding.

A small inlet or bay, narrower and extending further into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river.

A stream of water smaller than a river and larger than a brook.

Any turn or winding.

A natural stream of water smaller than a river (and often a tributary of a river);

Any member of the Creek Confederacy (especially the Muskogee) formerly living in Georgia and Alabama but now chiefly in Oklahoma