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

See Examples For:

North America

Bradley Saunders, North America economist for Capital Economist, said securing the future of the trade deal was the "really important thing" for Carney to achieve in the longer term.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

The enterprise faded into obscurity after Bowen’s death, and soybeans remained little more than a curiosity in North America.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

The chief executive of a major copper development project in North America believes high prices are here to stay and the threats to supply continue to outweigh those to demand.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

She reinvents herself repeatedly, moving around North America and ultimately to Paris, but wherever she goes she runs into people from the party.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

Where they had once dwelled all over North America they now lived in remote parts of Canada, in only two of the lower forty-eight states, and in the wilderness of Alaska.

From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George