Use of capitals for geographical and political regions
Use initial capitals for the names of geographical regions:
Africa Asia Europe Latin America the Caribbean Oceania
Other geographical names and derived terms include (note capitalisation):
Antarctica the Antarctic Circle the Antarctic Continent Antarctic Circumpolar Current Australian Antarctic Territory Antarctic beech [a type of Southern Hemisphere tree] [Use lower case for antarctic when meaning extremely cold.]
the Arctic the Arctic Circle Arctic waters a mass of Arctic air [Use lower case for arctic when meaning extremely cold.]
the poles the North Pole the North Polar ice cap the South Pole polar regions
Southeast Asia central Asia
Asia–Pacific region but Indo-Pacific
the Australian Alps the Alps
an Alpine village [if in the European or Australian Alps] but alpine pastures in the mountains
the equator equatorial climate the Equatorial Current
the tropics tropical the Tropic of Cancer the Neotropics Neotropical [of the New World biogeographical region] the subtropics subtropical
New World [the Americas]
Old World [Africa, Asia and Europe]
the Far East [historical term used in Europe to refer to a region east of the Near East and the Middle East]
Near East [historical term used in Europe to refer to a region east of the Mediterranean. It has included different countries from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and Aegean to the western side of India, and is now mostly replaced by Middle East.]
Middle East
central Africa [if referring to a location] Central Africa [if referring to Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda]
the West [refers to countries of western Europe and those with a western European background, such as North America and Australia. See Multicultural users for more information on using this and similar terms.]
the East the Orient [both refer to countries east of Europe]
continental Europe [‘the Continent’]
continent of Australia mainland of Australia [both terms exclude Tasmania]
Eurasia [the landmass of Asia and Europe]
Use initial capitals for political divisions when they are part of the formal name but not when used generically:
Eastern Highlands Northern Province Milne Bay [all provinces of Papua New Guinea, but province is part of only one of the names]
South Sulawesi [a province] the province of South Sulawesi
the United Kingdom Great Britain Britain not the kingdom
Melbourne City the city of Melbourne
port of Darwin Darwin Port
the Commonwealth of Australia the Commonwealth [when used in reference to Australia] the state of New South Wales the Australian Capital Territory
Foreign terms for geographic entities
When a foreign generic term forms part of a geographical name, the equivalent English term should not be included because it will be redundant:
the Rio Grande [not the Rio Grande River – rio means river]
Mount Fuji or Fujiyama [not Mount Fujiyama]
Mauna Loa [not Mount Mauna Loa – mauna means mount]
the Sierra Nevada [not the Sierra Nevada Mountains]
Sahara [not Sahara desert – Sahara means desert]
However, a number of official and formal names are tautological:
Lake Rotorua [roto means lake in Maori]
Timor-Leste [Timor from timur meaning east in Indonesian, and leste meaning east in Portuguese]
Informal terms
Certain terms considered political rather than geographical can take either initial capitals or lower case:
iron curtain or Iron Curtain
third world or Third World [See Multicultural users for information on using this term.]
Abbreviations for geographical terms
Formal names should be written in full in running text, but may be abbreviated where space is limited (e.g. tables, maps):
Mount Wellington not Mt Wellington
Abbreviations for topographical features do not take stops:
B bay
C cape
Cr creek
G gulf
I, Is island, islands
L lake
Lgn lagoon
In inlet
Mt mount or mountain
Mts mountains
Pk peak
Pen peninsula
Pt point
R river
Ra range
Str strait