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

While investors initially cheered the company-wide shakeup, progress has been slow as Nike grapples with elevated inventory levels and soft demand in Asia and North America.

From Barron's • Jun. 24, 2026

U.S. and Canadian soccer fans have come a long way since 1994, the last time North America played host to the World Cup.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 23, 2026

The companies set to be acquired, known as Vac, operate magnet production facilities in North America, Europe and Asia.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 23, 2026

However, much of the research supporting their value comes from cropland and grassland systems in Europe and North America.

From Science Daily • Jun. 22, 2026

For thousands of years after corn was domesticated in Mexico, it failed to spread northward into eastern North America, because of the cooler climates and shorter growing season prevailing there.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond