Lake vs. Bayou — What's the Difference?

A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although like the much larger oceans, they form part of Earth's water cycle.

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.

A large area of water surrounded by land

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

An insoluble pigment made by combining a soluble organic dye and an insoluble mordant.

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

A large inland body of fresh water or salt water.

A slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.

A scenic pond, as in a park.

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

A large pool of liquid

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.

A pigment consisting of organic coloring matter with an inorganic, usually metallic base or carrier, used in dyes, inks, and paints.

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

A deep red.

A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.

A large amount of liquid; as, a wine lake.

A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.

(obsolete) A pit, or ditch.

(obsolete) An offering, sacrifice, gift.

(dialectal) Play; sport; game; fun; glee.

(obsolete) A kind of fine, white linen.

In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermillion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.

In the composition of colors for use in products intended for human consumption, made by extending on a substratum of alumina, a salt prepared from one of the certified water-soluble straight colors.

(obsolete) To present an offering.

To leap, jump, exert oneself, play.

To make lake-red.

A pigment formed by combining some coloring matter, usually by precipitation, with a metallic oxide or earth, esp. with aluminium hydrate; as, madder lake; Florentine lake; yellow lake, etc.

A kind of fine white linen, formerly in use.

A large body of water contained in a depression of the earth's surface, and supplied from the drainage of a more or less extended area.

To play; to sport.

A body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land

A purplish red pigment prepared from lac or cochineal

Any of numerous bright translucent organic pigments