A lake is a large body of water surrounded by land, while a pond is smaller and stiller, whether natural or man-made. If you could easily see across it or even wade in, it is likely a pond rather than a lake.
The core difference
A pond is a smaller, stiller body of water than a lake.
- lake — a large body of water surrounded by land: they rented a cabin beside a quiet mountain lake.
- pond — a small body of still water, smaller than a lake, whether natural or artificial: ducks were paddling across the village pond.
How to tell them apart
The core difference is scale and stillness: a lake is large enough to have its own currents, weather effects and depth, while a pond is small and calm, often shallow enough to see the bottom, and frequently made by hand, such as a garden pond dug for koi.
Both words stretch beyond their literal size too. "Lake" can describe a large quantity of spilled liquid, as in a lake of coffee on the kitchen floor. "Pond" has a well-known informal use as shorthand for the Atlantic Ocean, especially in the phrase "across the pond," a wry way of downplaying the distance between Britain and America.
