The formation of the general theory of terminology occurred in the XIX century, this period was marked by the creation of a number of artificial languages (Esperanto, ido, Volyapyuk, etc.). The initial stage in the development of terminological work was systematic research on the ordering of vocabulary and word-formation tools.

The study of geographical terminology or geographical appeal at the present stage is becoming one of the urgent problems of ethnolinguistics, onomastics, bordering on the science of language, and the toponymic part of the subject of geography. The composition of geographical appellate vocabulary is important not only for toponymic specialists, but also for dialectical researchers in determining the lecture units of each region.  The linguistic and geographical study of the appellate vocabulary is closely related to the scientific orientation of the researcher of the vocabulary of the language, dialects of each region.

The main thing for geographical terminology depends on the relationship between the origin of the word and the territorial-geographical appellate vocabulary.

The language of geographical concepts and terms -in geographical science, concepts and terms as the basis of general scientific knowledge form a single system in close interrelation or consist of an explanatory and terminological apparatus (S. V. Kalesnik, V. B. Sochava, D. L. Arman, I. S. Shchukin, A. G. Isachenko, E. B. Alaev, V. S. Preobrazhensky, etc. Alexandrova et al.). Geographical concepts and terms also obey each other. A scientific term performs an auxiliary function for a geographical language, and a concept performs a basic function. This is due to the fact that the concept serves as a support for scientific laws and patterns, doctrines, theories, conclusions and assumptions covering the content-theoretical part of knowledge.

Currently, the issues of system analysis of comparative typological geographical terms are relevant. Including geographical terminology in Russian and Kazakh languages has not yet been fully studied from the point of view of linguistic and functional aspects as part of scientific terminology. Insufficient comprehensive study of geographical term systems, non-description of the structural and semantic features of terms, and not yet a sufficient number of industry dictionaries make it difficult to translate terms in professional specialized geographical literature. In this regard, the article discusses the issues of terminological research and analysis of the theoretical foundations of the formation of geographical terminology.