Llyn

Llyn is the Welsh word for a lake or pool of standing water. In Welsh, it refers to any natural or man-made body of freshwater and is a common element in geographic names and descriptions. The term is frequently used in Wales in both everyday language and toponymy.

In Welsh toponyms, llyn appears as a root that identifies a geographic feature. Notable examples include Llyn Tegid, the Welsh name for Bala Lake in Gwynedd, and Llyn Padarn near Llanberis in Snowdonia. Llyn Tegid is widely cited as the largest natural lake in Wales by surface area. The word reflects Wales’s landscape character and is encountered in maps, tourism materials, and regional planning.

The term also features in Welsh literature and folklore, where lakes are traditional motifs within the country’s natural and cultural imagery. Its usage extends beyond pure geography to cultural and environmental contexts, often signaling a body of water within a landscape description.

Related place-name forms include Llŷn (with a circumflex), as in the Llŷn Peninsula in north-west Wales. Llŷn is etymologically related in meaning but is a distinct toponym from llyn and is not a direct synonym. Overall, llyn remains a fundamental component of Welsh linguistic and geographic identity, used to name many lakes across Wales.