• 77 bodies of water

Water Bodies Quiz

Tap the ocean, sea, lake or river each question names.

Water Bodies Quiz

Name Date

Tap this on the map: Bay of Bengal

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Write the name of each numbered body of water.Answer key

  1. Pacific Ocean
  2. Atlantic Ocean
  3. Indian Ocean
  4. Southern Ocean
  5. Arctic Ocean
  6. Gulf of Alaska
  7. Bering Sea
  8. Beaufort Sea
  9. Hudson Bay
  10. Baffin Bay
  11. Labrador Sea
  12. Gulf of Mexico
  13. Caribbean Sea
  14. Greenland Sea
  15. Norwegian Sea
  16. North Sea
  17. Baltic Sea
  18. Bay of Biscay
  19. Mediterranean Sea
  20. Black Sea
  21. Caspian Sea
  22. Red Sea
  23. Persian Gulf
  24. Arabian Sea
  25. Bay of Bengal
  26. Mozambique Channel
  27. Gulf of Guinea
  28. Barents Sea
  29. Kara Sea
  30. Laptev Sea
  31. Sea of Okhotsk
  32. Sea of Japan
  33. East China Sea
  34. South China Sea
  35. Philippine Sea
  36. Coral Sea
  37. Tasman Sea
  38. Great Australian Bight
  39. Ross Sea
  40. Weddell Sea
  41. Great Bear Lake
  42. Great Slave Lake
  43. Lake Winnipeg
  44. Lake Superior
  45. Lake Michigan
  46. Lake Huron
  47. Lake Erie
  48. Lake Ontario
  49. Lake Titicaca
  50. Lake Chad
  51. Lake Victoria
  52. Lake Tanganyika
  53. Lake Malawi
  54. Lake Baikal
  55. Yukon River
  56. Mackenzie River
  57. Missouri River
  58. Mississippi River
  59. Orinoco River
  60. Amazon River
  61. Paraná River
  62. Danube River
  63. Volga River
  64. Nile River
  65. Niger River
  66. Congo River
  67. Zambezi River
  68. Ob River
  69. Yenisey River
  70. Lena River
  71. Amur River
  72. Indus River
  73. Ganges River
  74. Yellow River
  75. Yangtze River
  76. Mekong River
  77. Murray River

Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2. Licence: public domain.

Each body of water is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a body of water is answered.

Next step From source to mouth: label the 18 parts of a riverOne region, closer: 48 physical features of Latin America

All 77 bodies of water on the diagram

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Oceans 5

  1. Pacific Ocean The largest and deepest ocean, about 165,250,000 square kilometers. It covers about 46 percent of the water surface of Earth, more area than all the land put together.
  2. Atlantic Ocean The second largest ocean, about 85,133,000 square kilometers. That is about 17 percent of the surface of Earth. It separates the Americas from Europe and Africa.
  3. Indian Ocean The third largest ocean, about 70,560,000 square kilometers, and the warmest. Asia bounds it on the north, Africa on the west and Australia on the east.
  4. Southern Ocean The waters around Antarctica, generally taken as south of 60 degrees south. At 21,960,000 square kilometers it is the second smallest ocean. Another name is the Antarctic Ocean.
  5. Arctic Ocean The smallest and shallowest ocean, about 14,060,000 square kilometers, and the coldest. Sea ice covers most of it through the year.

Seas, gulfs and bays 35

  1. Gulf of Alaska An arm of the Pacific inside the curve of Alaska's southern coast. The Alaska Peninsula separates it from the Bering Sea, and the largest glaciers of Alaska reach its coast.
  2. Bering Sea A northern Pacific sea between Alaska and the Russian Far East. It covers over 2,000,000 square kilometers. It is named for Vitus Bering, who explored it in 1728. The strait at its north end is not a shape on this drawing.
  3. Beaufort Sea A sea of the Arctic Ocean, frozen over most of the year. It lies north of Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The Mackenzie River empties into it. It is named after the hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort.
  4. Hudson Bay An inland sea of 1,230,000 square kilometers in northeastern Canada. It is counted in the Arctic Ocean. Its southern arm is James Bay, and the Hudson Strait links it to the Labrador Sea and the Atlantic.
  5. Baffin Bay It lies between Greenland's west coast and Baffin Island. Ice keeps ships out for most of the year. Davis Strait, then the Labrador Sea, link it to the Atlantic.
  6. Labrador Sea An arm of the North Atlantic between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The Davis Strait connects it to Baffin Bay in the north.
  7. Gulf of Mexico A marginal sea on the Atlantic Ocean, about 1.6 million square kilometers. The United States, Mexico and Cuba surround it, and the Yucatán Channel joins it to the Caribbean Sea.
  8. Caribbean Sea Among Earth's largest seas, about 2,754,000 square kilometers. Its deepest point, the Cayman Trough between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, is 7,686 meters (25,217 feet) down.
  9. Greenland Sea Greenland is on the west and the Svalbard islands on the east. Iceland and the Norwegian Sea lie to the south. Its air rarely warms above 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
  10. Norwegian Sea Off northwest Norway, between the Greenland and North Seas. Most of its floor lies about two kilometers deep, and the warm North Atlantic Current keeps it free of ice all year.
  11. North Sea It lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark and Germany. Also the Netherlands, Belgium and France. It is more than 970 kilometers (600 miles) long and covers 570,000 square kilometers.
  12. Baltic Sea An arm of the Atlantic enclosed by nine countries. They run from Denmark and Sweden round to Finland, Russia and Poland. It is the largest basin of brackish water in the world and drains to the ocean through the Danish straits.
  13. Bay of Biscay A northeast Atlantic gulf. It lies along the western coast of France and the northern coast of Spain. Also called the Gulf of Gascony. Its average depth is 1,744 meters (5,722 feet).
  14. Mediterranean Sea About 2,500,000 square kilometers, almost completely enclosed by land. At the Strait of Gibraltar, where it meets the Atlantic, Europe and Africa are only 14 kilometers (9 miles) apart.
  15. Black Sea Six countries have a coast on it. They are Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. It covers 436,400 square kilometers and is up to 2,212 meters (7,257 feet) deep. The Danube is one of the main rivers that feed it.
  16. Caspian Sea The world's largest inland water body, 371,000 square kilometers. Also described as the largest lake. Its water is about a third as salty as the ocean, and its surface is about 27 meters (89 feet) below sea level.
  17. Red Sea An inlet of the Indian Ocean about 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) long. It is 355 kilometers (221 miles) across at its widest. At its north end the Gulf of Suez leads to the Suez Canal, which is not on this drawing.
  18. Persian Gulf Between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. The Strait of Hormuz joins it to the Gulf of Oman. Arab governments call it the Arabian Gulf. The map data writes Persian Gulf, and both names count as typed answers.
  19. Arabian Sea A region of the northern Indian Ocean of 3,862,000 square kilometers. It is up to 5,395 meters (17,700 feet) deep. The Arabian Peninsula is on its west side and India on its east, and the Indus River empties into it.
  20. Bay of Bengal The Indian Ocean's northeastern part, 2,600,000 square kilometers. India is on the west, Bangladesh on the north and Myanmar on the northeast. The Ganges is one of the large rivers that flow into it.
  21. Mozambique Channel Part of the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mozambique. It is about 1,700 kilometers (1,100 miles) long and 419 kilometers (260 miles) across at its narrowest point.
  22. Gulf of Guinea Part of the tropical Atlantic. It runs from Cape Palmas in Liberia to Cape Lopez in Gabon. The point where the Equator crosses the Prime Meridian, zero latitude and zero longitude, is in this gulf. The Niger drains into it.
  23. Barents Sea A shallow sea of the Arctic Ocean. It lies off Norway's and Russia's north coasts, 230 meters (750 feet) deep on average. It is named after the Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz. The islands of Novaya Zemlya divide it from the Kara Sea.
  24. Kara Sea Arctic Ocean waters north of Siberia, around 880,000 square kilometers. It lies east of the islands of Novaya Zemlya. Ice closes it for all but about two months of the year. The Ob and the Yenisey reach the sea here.
  25. Laptev Sea A sea of the Arctic Ocean. It lies between the Taimyr Peninsula and the New Siberian Islands. Named after the explorers Dmitry and Khariton Laptev. Most of the time it is frozen. The delta of the Lena reaches about 100 kilometers into it.
  26. Sea of Okhotsk A sea of the northwestern Pacific. It lies between the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the island of Sakhalin and the coast of eastern Siberia. It takes its name from Okhotsk port.
  27. Sea of Japan It lies between Japan, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula and the Russian mainland. It has almost no tides. South Korea calls it the East Sea and North Korea the Korean East Sea. Those names count as typed answers.
  28. East China Sea A sea of the western Pacific of about 1,249,000 square kilometers. It is bounded by Kyushu, the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan. The Yangtze reaches the ocean here, and the Yellow Sea is its northern extension.
  29. South China Sea A sea of the western Pacific of around 3,500,000 square kilometers. Vietnam calls it the East Sea, and the Philippines calls the part off its own coast the West Philippine Sea, which counts as a typed answer.
  30. Philippine Sea A sea of the western Pacific east of the Philippine islands. Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands are on its west side and the Mariana Islands on its east. At about 5 million square kilometers it is the largest sea in the world.
  31. Coral Sea A South Pacific sea off Australia's northeast coast. It runs 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) down that coast. It holds the Great Barrier Reef, the largest reef system in the world.
  32. Tasman Sea A South Pacific sea separating Australia and New Zealand. It is about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) across. It is named after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, in 1642 the first European known to cross it.
  33. Great Australian Bight A large open bay lined with cliffs. It lies off the central and western parts of the southern coast of mainland Australia. The English navigator Matthew Flinders charted it in 1802.
  34. Ross Sea A deep Southern Ocean bay in Antarctica. The southernmost sea on Earth. Its far end is about 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the South Pole. It is named for James Clark Ross, who reached it in 1841.
  35. Weddell Sea In the bay between Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. Part of the Southern Ocean. It is around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) across at its widest and about 2.8 million square kilometers in area.

Lakes 14

  1. Great Bear Lake The largest lake entirely in Canada and eighth largest in the world. It is on the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories. Lakes Superior and Huron are larger, but they are shared with the United States.
  2. Great Slave Lake North America's deepest lake, 614 meters (2,014 feet). Also the world's tenth largest lake at 27,200 square kilometers. The Mackenzie River flows out of it toward the Arctic Ocean.
  3. Lake Winnipeg A lake of 24,514 square kilometers in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The twelfth largest lake on Earth. It is 416 kilometers (258 miles) from north to south but only 12 meters (39 feet) deep on average.
  4. Lake Superior The highest, northernmost and westernmost Great Lake. Also, by surface area, the largest freshwater lake on Earth. It drains into Lake Huron through the St. Marys River.
  5. Lake Michigan The only Great Lake that lies fully in the United States. Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan share it. The Straits of Mackinac join it to Lake Huron, so the two stand at the same level.
  6. Lake Huron Shared by Ontario and Michigan. Water comes in from Lake Superior through the St. Marys River and leaves by the St. Clair River toward Lake Erie. Georgian Bay is part of it.
  7. Lake Erie The southernmost and shallowest of the Great Lakes, smallest by volume. It is 64 meters (210 feet) at its deepest. The Detroit River brings water in, and the Niagara River carries it out toward Lake Ontario.
  8. Lake Ontario The Great Lakes chain ends with it. The Niagara River flows in from Lake Erie, and the Saint Lawrence River carries the water out to the Atlantic. The Saint Lawrence is not on this drawing.
  9. Lake Titicaca On the Bolivia–Peru border in the Andes. It is 3,812 meters (12,507 feet) above sea level. It is often called the world's highest navigable lake, and its water is slightly brackish.
  10. Lake Chad A freshwater lake where four countries meet: Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Its main source is the Chari River. Its open water shrank from 25,000 square kilometers in 1960 to about 2,000 in 1980.
  11. Lake Victoria The largest lake in Africa by area, about 59,947 square kilometers. Among freshwater lakes only Lake Superior is larger. Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya share it, and the White Nile begins near it.
  12. Lake Tanganyika The longest freshwater lake in the world. The second largest by volume and the second deepest after Lake Baikal. Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Zambia share it.
  13. Lake Malawi Also called Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique. It is the southernmost lake of the East African Rift and has more fish species than any other lake, among them at least 700 kinds of cichlid.
  14. Lake Baikal The world's deepest lake, 1,642 meters (5,387 feet). The largest freshwater lake by volume, with 22 to 23 percent of the fresh surface water on Earth. At 25 to 30 million years it is also the oldest lake.

Rivers of North America 4

  1. Yukon River It runs through the Yukon territory and Alaska to the Bering Sea. About 3,190 kilometers (1,980 miles) long, starting in British Columbia. It was one of the main routes of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 to 1903.
  2. Mackenzie River It flows 1,738 kilometers (1,080 miles) north-northwest from Great Slave Lake. It ends at a large delta on the Arctic Ocean, all inside the Northwest Territories. Its watershed drains some 20 percent of Canada.
  3. Missouri River The longest river in the United States, 2,341 miles (3,767 kilometers). It rises in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana and enters the Mississippi River north of St. Louis.
  4. Mississippi River It flows 2,340 miles (3,766 kilometers) south to the Gulf of Mexico. It runs from Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota to its delta. With its tributaries it drains all or parts of 32 states and two Canadian provinces.

Rivers of South America 3

  1. Orinoco River Among South America's longest rivers, 2,140 kilometers (1,330 miles). About 65 percent of its basin is in Venezuela and 35 percent in Colombia.
  2. Amazon River The world's largest river by the water it carries. That is about 215,000 to 230,000 cubic meters a second, more than the next seven largest independent rivers together. It is the longest or second longest river, a title disputed with the Ni
  3. Paraná River It runs some 4,880 kilometers (3,030 miles) through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. It is second in length in South America only to the Amazon. It and the Uruguay River make the Río de la Plata.

Rivers of Europe 2

  1. Danube River Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It flows 2,850 kilometers (1,770 miles) from the Black Forest of Germany to the Black Sea and passes four capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.
  2. Volga River The longest river in Europe, 3,531 kilometers (2,194 miles). All of it is in Russia. It drains into the Caspian Sea, so it never reaches an ocean.

Rivers of Africa 4

  1. Nile River Called the longest river in the world, at 7,088 kilometers (4,404 miles). The Amazon disputes the title. It flows north to the Mediterranean. The White Nile and the Blue Nile meet at Khartoum, and this line follows the White Nile.
  2. Niger River West Africa's main river, about 4,180 kilometers (2,600 miles). The third longest in Africa after the Nile and the Congo. It rises in the Guinea Highlands, runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger and Nigeria, and ends in a large delta.
  3. Congo River Africa's second longest river after the Nile. Also the deepest river measured, around 220 meters (720 feet). No other major river crosses the Equator twice. Its upper course is called the Lualaba.
  4. Zambezi River Africa's fourth longest river, 2,574 kilometers (1,599 miles). The longest that flows east. It rises in Zambia, passes over Victoria Falls, and crosses Mozambique to the Indian Ocean.

Rivers of northern Asia 4

  1. Ob River With its tributary the Irtysh, Earth's seventh longest river system. The system is 5,410 kilometers (3,360 miles) long. It rises in the Altai Mountains and ends in the Gulf of Ob, the longest estuary in the world.
  2. Yenisey River The world's fifth longest river system. Also spelled Yenisei. It is the largest that drains into the Arctic Ocean. It begins in Mongolia and ends at the Kara Sea.
  3. Lena River The longest river wholly inside Russia, 4,294 kilometers (2,668 miles). The eleventh longest in the world. Permafrost lies under all of its basin. Its delta on the Laptev Sea is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) wide.
  4. Amur River Called the Heilong River in China. It forms the border of the Russian Far East with Northeast China. The river proper is 2,824 kilometers (1,755 miles) long, or 4,444 kilometers counted with the Argun.

Rivers of South and East Asia 4

  1. Indus River A river of 3,180 kilometers (1,980 miles). It rises in Tibet, crosses the disputed Kashmir region, then flows south-southwest through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi.
  2. Ganges River It rises in the western Himalayas and flows 2,525 kilometers (1,569 miles). It crosses the plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it is called the Padma. It empties through the Ganges Delta into the Bay of Bengal.
  3. Yellow River The second longest river in China, an estimated 5,464 kilometers (3,395 miles). Also known as the Huanghe. It is named for the color of the sediment it picks up on the Loess Plateau. It empties into the Bohai Sea.
  4. Yangtze River China's longest river, third longest in the world. It runs 6,236 kilometers (3,875 miles) from the Tibetan Plateau to the East China Sea. The Three Gorges Dam on it is the largest hydroelectric power station in the world.

Mekong and Murray 2

  1. Mekong River An estimated 4,909 kilometers (3,050 miles), the third longest river in Asia. It runs from the Tibetan Plateau through China, where it is called the Lancang, then Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea.
  2. Murray River The longest river in Australia, 2,508 kilometers (1,558 miles). It rises in the Australian Alps, forms the New South Wales–Victoria border, and turns south at Morgan for its last 315 kilometers.

How this list was compiled: The 77 bodies of water (5 oceans, 35 seas, gulfs and bays, 14 lakes and 23 rivers), their names and their outlines come from Natural Earth 5.1.2, the map data credited under the drawing. Rivers are listed as rivers (Amazon River, Nile River) where Natural Earth prints the bare name, and the bare name is accepted as a typed answer. Natural Earth calls Lake Victoria by the name Nyanza, which is accepted too. Every length, area, depth, rank and name origin in the detail lines was read in the English Wikipedia article for the feature and checked 2026-09-20: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Ocean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ocean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Ocean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Alaska, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Bay, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baffin_Bay, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Mexico, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Biscay, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Bengal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique_Channel, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Guinea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barents_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptev_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Okhotsk, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Japan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_China_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Australian_Bight, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weddell_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bear_Lake, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Slave_Lake, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnipeg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Superior, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Michigan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Huron, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Erie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ontario, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Victoria, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tanganyika, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Malawi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukon_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orinoco, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraná_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambezi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ob_(river), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yenisei, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amur, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_River, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Japan_naming_dispute, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute. Left out because the articles disagree: which river is third in the world by the water it carries (the Congo and the Orinoco articles each claim it), and which lake is the largest in South America. The Nile and the Amazon lines say that the title of longest river is disputed, as both articles do. Three names are disputed. Each is asked under the name Natural Earth prints, and the detail line gives the other: Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf to Arab governments), Sea of Japan (East Sea in South Korea, Korean East Sea in North Korea) and South China Sea (East Sea in Vietnam, West Philippine Sea for the part the Philippines claims). Arabian Gulf, East Sea for the Sea of Japan, and West Philippine Sea count as typed answers. The 33 waters in The big names are the oceans, seas, rivers and lakes that school lists of the bodies of water of the world ask most often; the choice is ours. The Caspian Sea is filed with the seas, as Natural Earth files it, and its line says that it is also described as the largest lake. Positions in the hints were read off the drawing itself. The seven continents are shapes of this drawing, but this quiz does not ask them. Not on the drawing: straits and canals (the Bering Strait, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal among them) and the Saint Lawrence River. The five Great Lakes are five separate shapes. Lake Chad is too small to draw at this scale and is a dot. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_regions_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_regions_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_rivers_lake_centerlines (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_rivers_lake_centerlines.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Equal Earth projection centred on 11°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. One place is too small to draw at this scale and shown as a dot. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This water bodies quiz asks 77 bodies of water on one blank world map: the 5 oceans, 35 seas, gulfs and bays, 14 lakes and 23 rivers. The seven continents are plain land with no country borders.

Read the full guide

Twelve rounds on one water map of the world

All 77 is the long round. Under Start from, The big names asks the 33 waters that school lists carry most, and Oceans (5), Seas, gulfs and bays (35) and Lakes (14) take one kind each. Seven river rounds zoom into one region each, from Rivers of North America (4) to Mekong and Murray (2).

What this map of the oceans and seas leaves out

The drawing has no straits or canals, so the Bering Strait, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal are not asked. Neither is the Saint Lawrence River. The Great Lakes are five separate lakes. Ten lakes, the Bay of Biscay and three rivers are answered at a ring on a line; Lake Chad is a dot.

  • West to east across Siberia: Ob, Yenisey, Lena. The first two end in the Kara Sea, the Lena in the Laptev Sea.
  • The Great Lakes drain in a chain: Superior into Huron, Huron into Erie, Erie into Ontario. Michigan hangs south from Huron.
  • In East Africa, Victoria is the round lake, Tanganyika the long one southwest of it, and Malawi the one farther south.

Questions and answers

What are the major bodies of water in the world?

The five oceans, from largest to smallest: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic. The largest sea is the Philippine Sea, the largest inland water is the Caspian Sea, and the deepest lake is Lake Baikal.

Is the Caspian Sea a sea or a lake?

Both are said. It is the world's largest inland water body, also described as the largest lake, and about a third as salty as the ocean. This quiz files it with the seas.

Why does the quiz say Sea of Japan and Persian Gulf?

The drawing takes its names from Natural Earth, its map data. South Korea calls the Sea of Japan the East Sea, and Arab governments call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf. East Sea and Arabian Gulf both count as typed answers.

Can I print a world map with seas labeled?

Yes. Both print buttons number the 77 waters on the map. One lists the names beside the numbers, and the other leaves the lines blank to write on.

Does this continents and bodies of water map name the continents?

No. The seven continents are drawn as plain land, and all 77 questions are water. The printed key lists the waters only.

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