Geographic vs geographical

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Grammarist

Geographic is an adjective that describes something or someone as pertaining to geography, the study of the location of places. It can also describe something as being part of a particular region, usually unique in some way.

The adverb form of this word is geographically.

Geographical is listed in the dictionary as a variant form or spelling of geographic. Interestingly, in the European dictionaries we checked, geographical was the main entry and geographic  was the variant form.

As far as Google’s ngram viewer is concerned, geographical has always been more popular, with geographic increasing in popularity since around 1900. If the trajectory continues, it would surpass geographical in the next few decades.

In short, there isn’t an official preference and one should use what sounds best.

Examples

Nonetheless, for investors who want to stick to property and give themselves broad exposure and solid yield, it may be a case of getting back to the tenets of portfolio construction – think long term, be as diversified as possible, across sectors and geographic regions, watch the market and have some liquidity. [Australian Financial Review]

“If you’re still happy to use LastPass after this attack, you must ensure you’re using some of the many security options available, which include two-factor authentication and ‘allow or deny’ logins by geographical region.” [The Telegraph]

Some beacons are in places that although famous are geographically incidental; you might not expect them to be elevated on aviation charts in a manner so independent of their historical prominence. [Slate]