In Civilization V, the world is made up of hexagonally-shaped "tiles" (also occasionally known as hexes and spaces). These tiles come in a variety of "terrain types" - desert, plains, grassland, hills and so forth - and many also include "features" like forests and jungle. These elements help to determine the tile's usefulness to a nearby city as well as how easy or difficult it is to move through the tile. Also, a tile's terrain and features may have important effects upon any combat occurring there.

Features are elements of terrain or vegetation that appear in a hex, atop the hex's terrain. (A grassland hex might have forest or marsh on it as well, for example.) Features modify a hex's productivity and might also alter the amount of "movements points" (MP) a unit expends when entering the hex. Features may also provide defensive combat bonuses or penalties to a unit occupying the hex.