Africa

American  

[af-ri-kuh] / ˈæf rɪ kə /

noun

1. a continent south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. About 11,700,000 square miles (30,303,000 square kilometers).

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Africa British  

/ ˈæfrɪkə /

noun

1. the second largest of the continents, on the Mediterranean in the north, the Atlantic in the west, and the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean in the east. The Sahara desert divides the continent unequally into North Africa (an early centre of civilization, in close contact with Europe and W Asia, now inhabited chiefly by Arabs) and Africa south of the Sahara (relatively isolated from the rest of the world until the 19th century and inhabited chiefly by Negroid peoples). It was colonized mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries by Europeans and now comprises independent nations. The largest lake is Lake Victoria and the chief rivers are the Nile, Niger, Congo, and Zambezi. Pop: 887 964 000 (2005 est). Area: about 30 300 000 sq km (11 700 000 sq miles)

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Africa Cultural  

1. The second-largest continent, after Asia; located south of Europe and bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east by the Indian Ocean.

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Discover More

Africa south of the Sahara is sometimes called sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa has been the home of great civilizations, particularly in Egypt (see also Egypt), along the Mediterranean Sea. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European nations colonized much of the continent (see colonialism). In the twentieth century, the colonies became independent countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit especially hard by HIV/AIDS, drastically decreasing the life expectancy of much of the population.

Etymology

Origin of Africa

See African ( def. )

Example Sentences

During the 17th Century the Netherlands conquered large swathes of territory in regions that now make up Indonesia, South Africa, Curacao and West Papua.

From BBC • Jun. 21, 2026

In the 1980s, global measures including a U.S. ban on investments and loans to the white-minority government in South Africa hurt the regime and helped force an end to apartheid.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 21, 2026

Mexico's Julian Quinones opened the scoring in this World Cup in a 2-0 win over South Africa on 11 June.

From BBC • Jun. 20, 2026

Moving beyond Italy, Ms. Fletcher explores the role of firearms in European imperial ventures into the Americas and West Africa.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 19, 2026

She remembered how fast cheetahs could run and she knew how to solve for x in algebra problems and she could tell you the name of every single country in Africa.

From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix