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"There is considerable uncertainty about defining the difference between lakes and ponds, and no current internationally accepted definition of either term across scientific disciplines or political boundaries exists.[5] For example, limnologists have defined lakes as water bodies which are simply a larger version of a pond, which can have wave action on the shoreline or where wind-induced turbulence plays a major role in mixing the water column. None of these definitions completely excludes ponds and all are difficult to measure. For this reason, simple size-based definitions are increasingly used to separate ponds and lakes. One definition of lake is a body of water of 2 hectares (5 acres) or more in area;[6]:331[7] however, others[who?] have defined lakes as waterbodies of 5 hectares (12 acres) and above,[citation needed] or 8 hectares (20 acres) and above [8] (see also the definition of "pond"). Charles Elton, one of the founders of ecology, regarded lakes as waterbodies of 40 hectares (99 acres) or more.[9] The term lake is also used to describe a feature such as Lake Eyre, which is a dry basin most of the time but may become filled under seasonal conditions of heavy rainfall. In common usage, many lakes bear names ending with the word pond, and a lesser number of names ending with lake are in quasi-technical fact, ponds. One textbook illustrates this point with the following: "In Newfoundland, for example, almost every lake is called a pond, whereas in Wisconsin, almost every pond is called a lake."[10]

One hydrology book proposes to define the term "lake" as a body of water with the following five chacteristics:[5]

it partially or totally fills one or several basins connected by straits[5] has essentially the same water level in all parts (except for relatively short-lived variations caused by wind, varying ice cover, large inflows, etc.)[5]

it does not have regular intrusion of seawater[5]

a considerable portion of the sediment suspended in the water is captured by the basins (for this to happen they need to have a sufficiently small inflow-to-volume ratio)[5]

the area measured at the mean water level exceeds an arbitrarily chosen threshold (for instance, one hectare)[5]

With the exception of the seawater intrusion criterion, the others have been accepted or elaborated upon by other hydrology publications.[11][12]"

Source: Wikipedia