An "iso-" word for a contour line that connects points of equal elevation

A contour line or isoline connects points on a map that are of equal value. Examples of contour lines or isolines are isobars (pressure) and isotherms (temperature).

Perhaps the prototypical example of a contour line is that which connects points of equal elevation (that is, height above sea level). These are usually referred to simply as contour lines. Is there however an "iso-" name for such contour lines?

Wikipedia suggests isohypse. I don't know what exactly this is, but Wiktionary suggests that this is not quite correct--isohypse refers instead to "A line on a map connecting points of both equal height and equal barometric pressure".


The Ordnance Survey, has been Britain's leading map-maker since 1791. It produces maps to the highest international standard and has the whole of the UK mapped to a scale of 1:500, with contour lines at 0.5 metre intervals.

They are called 'contour lines' and as far as I am aware they have never deviated from this nomenclature.


Isohypse is correct. It means equal or uniform (iso-, from Greek iso, isos: equal) height (hyps, from Greek hupsos: height or top). The study of the topography of the earth's surface, particularly its varying elevation, is hypsography. The practice of determining elevation points is hypsometry. The colors of an elevation map are called hysometric tints (may I say what a joy it has been to work for more than 20 years with cartographers who use that expression routinely?), and such a map itself is formally termed a hypsometric map. Because that term is obscure, most such maps are called topographic, elevation, or simply physical maps. Topographic maps, by the way, are any that convey the surface features of the map area, whether with contour lines, hypsometric tints, relief shading, pictographic symbols, or any other means.

Found the citations for isohypse itself; also recasting references for the related terms since the original format made them easily misunderstood.
isohypse Longman Dictionary of Geography, Audrey N. Clark, 1985 (London: Longman) and Glossary of Geology, American Geological Institute, 1972 (Washington, D.C.: American Geological Institute).
hypsometry and hypsography American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4e, 2000 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin).
hypsometric map GIS Dictionary, Esri
hypsometric tints "The Development and Rationale of Cross-blended Hypsometric Tints," T. Patterson and B. Jenny, in Cartographic Perspectives, Number 69, 2011.


Generally speaking, a line that connects 2 equal values can be considered an isoquant.

. . . An isoquant (derived from quantity and the Greek word iso, meaning equal) is a contour line drawn through the set of points at which the same quantity of output is produced while changing the quantities of two or more inputs

from Wikipedia.org

While I realize this is typically an economic term, I don't see anything preventing it from being used in other applications.