What is continent?

  • (adj): Abstaining from sexual intercourse.
    Synonyms: celibate
    See also — Additional definitions below

Continent

A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are (from largest in size to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Read more about Continent.

Some articles on continent:

Maritime Continent
... Maritime Continent is the name given primarily by meteorologists to the region of Southeast Asia which comprises many islands, peninsulas and shallow seas ... The name combines the terms maritime and continent normally used as opposites in the description of climate ...
List Of Historical Countries And Empires Spanning More Than One Continent
... is a list of historical instances of nations covering land on two or more continents, including islands associated with a continent other than the one where the nation was based ... of transcontinental occurrence with the number of continents covered in parentheses and the nation's primary continent listed first ...
Continent-ocean Boundary
... The Continent-ocean boundary (COB) or continent-ocean transition is the boundary between continental crust and oceanic crust on a passive margin ... The identification of continent-ocean boundaries is important in the definition of plate boundaries at the time of break-up when trying to reconstruct the geometry and position of ancient continents e.g ...
Shanhai Yudi Quantu - Description - Magallania
... This transliterates the name "Magallanica", a name given to the prospective continent at the time in honor of Ferdinand Magellan, who had crossed past Tierra del ... The map notes how little is known about this continent – "Few have reached these southern regions ...
Continent - Geology
... crust, Plate tectonics Geologists use the term continent in a different manner from geographers, where a continent is defined by continental crust a ... Some geologists restrict the term 'continent' to portions of the crust built around stable Precambrian "shield", typically 1.5 to 3.8 billion years old, called a craton ... The margins of geologic continents are characterized by currently active or relatively recently active mobile belts and deep troughs of accumulated marine or deltaic ...

More definitions of "continent":

  • (adj): Having control over urination and defecation.
  • (noun): The European mainland.
    Example: "Englishmen like to visit the Continent but they wouldn't like to live there"
  • (noun): One of the large landmasses of the earth.
    Example: "There are seven continents"; "pioneers had to cross the continent on foot"

Famous quotes containing the word continent:

    What a prodigious growth this English race, especially the American branch of it, is having! How soon will it subdue and occupy all the wild parts of this continent and of the islands adjacent. No prophecy, however seemingly extravagant, as to future achievements in this way [is] likely to equal the reality.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    The open frontier, the hardships of homesteading from scratch, the wealth of natural resources, the whole vast challenge of a continent waiting to be exploited, combined to produce a prevailing materialism and an American drive bent as much, if not more, on money, property, and power than was true of the Old World from which we had fled.
    Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)

    Other nations have tried to check ... the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.
    John Louis O’Sullivan (1813–1895)