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• continent
  continent

  noun

  one of the main landmasses of the globe, usually reckoned as seven in number (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica).
• Continent
  Continent

  noun

  the mainland of Europe as distinguished from the British Isles

continent

American  

[kon-tn-uhnt] / ˈkɒn tn ənt /

noun

• continents
  plural

1. one of the main landmasses of the globe, usually reckoned as seven in number (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica).

2. a comparable landmass on another planet.

3. the mainland, as distinguished from islands or peninsulas.

4. the Continent, the mainland of Europe, as distinguished from the British Isles.

5. a continuous tract or extent, as of land.

6. Archaic. something that serves as a container or boundary.

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adjective

1. exercising or characterized by restraint in relation to the desires or passions and especially to sexual desires; temperate.

2. able to control urinary and fecal discharge.

3. Obsolete. containing; being a container; capacious.

4. Obsolete. restraining or restrictive.

5. Obsolete. continuous; forming an uninterrupted tract, as land.

Continent ¹ British  

/ ˈkɒntɪnənt /

noun

1. the mainland of Europe as distinguished from the British Isles

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continent ² British  

/ ˈkɒntɪnənt /

adjective

1. able to control urination and defecation

2. exercising self-restraint, esp from sexual activity; chaste

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continent ³ British  

/ ˈkɒntɪnənt, ˌkɒntɪˈnɛntəl /

noun

1. one of the earth's large land masses (Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, North and South America, and Antarctica)

2. that part of the earth's crust that rises above the oceans and is composed of sialic rocks. Including the continental shelves, the continents occupy 30 per cent of the earth's surface

3. obsolete

   1. mainland as opposed to islands

   2. a continuous extent of land

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continent Scientific  

/ kŏn′tə-nənt /

1. One of the seven great landmasses of the Earth. The continents are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• continence
  noun
• continental
  adjective
• uncontinent
  adjective
• continentally
  adverb
• continently
  adverb
• uncontinently
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• continents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of continent

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin continent-, stem of continēns “holding together,” present participle of continēre “to hold together, keep in position,” equivalent to con- con- + -tinēre, combining form of tenēre “to hold”; see contain

Explanation

A continent is one of the seven largest landmasses found on Earth. Asia, Australia, and Africa are three continents. Can you name the other four? Some folks forget the continent of Antarctica, because so few humans live there—none of them permanently. And you might be surprised how many people think that Africa is a country and not a continent. Due to a process known as continental drift, the extremely slow movement of the continents across the face of the globe, our world looks very different from the way it did 100 million years ago.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

continent Continent continents

With many on the continent still reeling, some among the scientific community said there was nothing unexpected about this summer.

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

“A lot of the people that are in detention centers are the Indigenous people of the North American continent, the South American continent,” she continued.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

During the Miocene, a geological period that lasted for millions of years, a vast lake covered a large portion of the continent.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

Destination: Africa - is it legal for US to deport foreign criminals to the continent?

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

At last, in 1488 Bartolomeu Dias reached the southernmost tip of the continent, which he named the Cape of Good Hope.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

The heat is threatening harvests across the Continent, raising the spectre of soaring food prices.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Newcastle have shifted policy this summer, targeting younger players on the Continent, with Lukas Hornicek the club's oldest arrival by a reasonable distance at 24 years of age.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

Duchamp showed the painting elsewhere on the Continent, but it made little impression.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

This particular form of instability—in which electoral outcomes haven’t caught up with voters’ frustrations—has long plagued polities on the Continent, where proportional voting systems accelerate the fracturing of authority in parliaments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

Proper British airmen flying over the European Continent carry a couple of photographs in their emergency kit, just in case they’re shot down and need fake ID.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

The "polka dot queen" channelled hallucinations and battles with mental health into vibrant art featuring her trademark dots, nets and infinity motifs over a career spanning decades and continents.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

The total eclipse is only expected to last a couple of minutes for people who watch it, but that doesn't deter eclipse hunters from crossing continents to witness it.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

Now, it is a symbol of the chasm that migration has opened between the two continents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

A change in one major ocean current can alter rainfall and extreme weather thousands of miles away, affecting ecosystems, water supplies, and communities across several continents.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

Through the miracle of the wireless telegraph, news of the whirlwind romance between Camilla Cranston and Lord Peter Henslowe reached two continents before we docked.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck