Bench

A bench in Montana and Idaho isn't a seat — it's a flat shelf of land stepped above a river or valley floor, often where the town's neighborhoods sit (e.g., 'the Bench' in Billings, MT or Boise, ID). The word is borrowed from frontier ranching and homesteading vocabulary and is used so casually in real-estate listings and weather reports that newcomers are often confused. Elsewhere in the country, no one calls a terrace a bench.