Asia

American  

[ey-zhuh, ey-shuh] / ˈeɪ ʒə, ˈeɪ ʃə /

noun

1. a continent bounded by Europe and the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. About 16,000,000 square miles (41,440,000 square kilometers).

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Asia British  

/ ˈeɪʒə, ˈeɪʃə /

noun

1. the largest of the continents, bordering on the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean and Red Seas in the west. It includes the large peninsulas of Asia Minor, India, Arabia, and Indochina and the island groups of Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka); contains the mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush, Himalayas, Pamirs, Tian Shan, Urals, and Caucasus, the great plateaus of India, Iran, and Tibet, vast plains and deserts, and the valleys of many large rivers including the Mekong, Irrawaddy, Indus, Ganges, Tigris, and Euphrates. Pop: 3 917 508 000 (2005 est). Area: 44 391 162 sq km (17 139 445 sq miles)

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Asia Cultural  

1. World's largest continent, joined to Europe to the west, forming Eurasia.

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Site of some of the world's earliest civilizations.

With three-fifths of the world's population, Asia has some of the world's greatest population densities.

Example Sentences

Several of the BOK’s peers in Asia have already raised rates, as has the European Central Bank.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026

El Nino can also suppress the monsoon over South Asia, depriving India and other parts of the subcontinent of vital rain that supports hundreds of millions of people.

From Barron's • Jun. 11, 2026

For decades, E. multilocularis has been recognized as a significant public health concern across parts of Europe and Asia.

From Science Daily • Jun. 11, 2026

Flooding is common in northern Peru and southern Ecuador, and can reach parts of East Africa, Central Asia and the southern United States.

From BBC • Jun. 11, 2026

While tens of thousands of mourners viewed Lincoln’s remains, detectives prepared to raid the Philadelphia home of the assassin’s sister, Asia Booth Clarke.

From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson