I
or pan or flat or dry lake
Flat-bottomed depression that is periodically covered by water.
Playas occur in interior desert basins and adjacent to coasts in arid and semiarid regions. The water that periodically covers the playa slowly filters into the groundwater system or evaporates into the atmosphere, causing the deposition of salt, sand, and mud along the bottom and around the edges of the depression.
II
[c mediumvioletred] (as used in expressions)
tidal flat
Pan American Sports Games
Pan American World Airways Inc.
Pan Am
Pan Gu
Pan African movement
Pan American Highway
Pan American Union
Pan Arabism
Pan Germanism
Pan Slavism
Pan Turkism
{{link=Tin Pan Alley">Tin Pan Alley