The terms playa, playa lake and sabkha are often used inconsistently because the criteria for recognition are not clearly established and because current definitions are inadequate. Definitions are proposed here to reduce the ambiguities and contextual problems that currently exist. 1) Playa: a discharging intracontinental basin with a negative water balance, remaining dry 75% of the year, and often associated with evaporites. 2) Playa lake: a transitional category between playas and lakes, essentially a flooded playa as defined above. 3) Sabkha: a shallow basin limited to marginal marine settings and associated with several per cent gypsum or gypsum parting laminae due to preferential halite dissolution during flooding. This eliminates the need to distinguish between a coastal and continental sabkha, where continental sabkha is equivalent to playa.