North America

American  

noun

1. the northern continent of the Western Hemisphere, extending from Central America to the Arctic Ocean. Highest point, Denali, 20,300 feet (6,187 meters); lowest, Death Valley, 276 feet (84 meters) below sea level. About 9,360,000 square miles (24,242,400 square kilometers).

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North America British  

noun

1. the third largest continent, linked with South America by the Isthmus of Panama and bordering on the Arctic Ocean, the N Pacific, the N Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. It consists generally of a great mountain system (the Western Cordillera) extending along the entire W coast, actively volcanic in the extreme north and south, with the Great Plains to the east and the Appalachians still further east, separated from the Canadian Shield by an arc of large lakes (Great Bear, Great Slave, Winnipeg, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario); reaches its greatest height of 6194 m (20 320 ft) in Mount McKinley, Alaska, and its lowest point of 85 m (280 ft) below sea level in Death Valley, California, and ranges from snowfields, tundra, and taiga in the north to deserts in the southwest and tropical forests in the extreme south. Pop: 332 156 000 (2005 est). Area: over 24 000 000 sq km (9 500 000 sq miles)

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North America Cultural  

1. Third-largest continent (after Asia and Africa), comprising Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America.

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Other Word Forms

• North American adjective

Etymology

Origin of North America

First recorded in 1680–90

Example Sentences

Though Disneyland Park’s littler and much younger sibling, the park has grown into a respectable offering, one that ranks among my favorite Disney parks in North America.

From Los Angeles Times

Cold Arctic air, transported south over North America by the polar jet stream in the winter, meets warmer air over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf.

From The Wall Street Journal

The shortest route for Russian surface-launched ballistic missiles to North America is over the Arctic.

From The Wall Street Journal

Enel plans to spend more than 26 billion euros in its integrated business—with the majority being invested across Europe and North America.

From The Wall Street Journal

At Milan Cortina, both teams survived overtime to reach the final, delivering the storybook outcome, NBC’s dream, served over breakfast in North America: 60 minutes to sort it all out.

From The Wall Street Journal