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The term slough (in the UK, pronounced IPA: /ˈslaʊ/ (as in "cow"); in the US and Canada, pronounced /sluː/ (as in "slew")) has several meanings related to wetland or aquatic features that seem to derive from local experience. For example:

• In the UK, a slough is a muddy or marshy area (for example see the probable derivation of Slough in Berkshire and other place names called Slough).
• In eastern and southeastern United States, a slough is a type of swamp or shallow lake system, typically formed as or by the backwater of a larger waterway. It is similar to a bayou with trees being present (that is, a swamp), and unlike a bog or marsh that lacks trees. It can also refer to the area of deeper water between a sandbar and a beach or between two sandbars.
• The term slough appears as well in the names of oxbow lakes, e.g. Meadowbrook Slough of Snoqualmie River in Washington State.
• In the western U.S., a slough is a secondary channel of a river delta or a narrow channel in a shallow salt-water marsh, usually flushed by the tide. While this is in essence the same application of the term as used in the eastern U.S., a singular difference is that there exist no native trees in the west that would grow out into the waterway to form a swamp, such as the Elkhorn Slough
• In the northern Great Plains of the U.S., a slough is a pond (often alkaline) usually the result of glaciation (see kettle (geology)); also called a pothole, whence Prairie Pothole Region to describe the area where these sloughs are abundant.^{[citation needed]}
• Similarly, in the Canadian Prairies, slough (pronounced like slew) refers to a naturally formed shallow freshwater pond, usually habitat for waterfowl.

• Seal Slough, San Mateo, California
• Famosa Slough, San Diego County, California
• Lost Lake Slough, Gunnison County, Colorado

• A deep bog known as the Slough of Despond is found in The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.
• Slough is commonly used in Laura Ingall Wilder's book "By The Shores Of Silver Lake"

• Bayou

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