List of lakes by area

This is a pair of lists of terrestrial lakes with a surface area of more than approximately 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi), ranked by area,^[1][2][3] excluding reservoirs and lagoons.

The area of some lakes can vary considerably over time, either seasonally or from year to year. This is especially true of salt lakes in arid climates. This list therefore excludes seasonal lakes such as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre (maximum area 9,500 km², 3,700 sq mi), Mar Chiquita Lake (Córdoba) (maximum area 6,000 km², 2,300 sq mi), Lake Torrens (maximum area 5,745 km², 2,218 sq mi) and Great Salt Lake (maximum area, 1988, 8,500 km², 3,300 sq mi).

The list is divided in two: all lakes as conventionally defined down to 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi), and the largest lakes under a geological definition, where the Caspian Sea is considered a small ocean rather than a lake, and Lake Michigan–Huron (or "Huron–Michigan") is recognized as a single body of water. The Caspian Sea is conventionally considered the world's largest lake, but it is centered on an oceanic basin (a fragment of the ancient Tethys Ocean) rather than lying entirely over continental crust as all other lakes do.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are conventionally counted as separate lakes, but hydrologically they are a single body of water, which is the world's largest lake by surface area.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}