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• continent
  continent

  noun

  one of the main landmasses of the globe, usually reckoned as seven in number (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica).
• Continent
  Continent

  noun

  the mainland of Europe as distinguished from the British Isles

continent

American  

[kon-tn-uhnt] / ˈkɒn tn ənt /

noun

• continents
  plural

1. one of the main landmasses of the globe, usually reckoned as seven in number (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica).

2. a comparable landmass on another planet.

3. the mainland, as distinguished from islands or peninsulas.

4. the Continent, the mainland of Europe, as distinguished from the British Isles.

5. a continuous tract or extent, as of land.

6. Archaic. something that serves as a container or boundary.

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adjective

1. exercising or characterized by restraint in relation to the desires or passions and especially to sexual desires; temperate.

2. able to control urinary and fecal discharge.

3. Obsolete. containing; being a container; capacious.

4. Obsolete. restraining or restrictive.

5. Obsolete. continuous; forming an uninterrupted tract, as land.

Continent ¹ British  

/ ˈkɒntɪnənt /

noun

1. the mainland of Europe as distinguished from the British Isles

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continent ² British  

/ ˈkɒntɪnənt /

adjective

1. able to control urination and defecation

2. exercising self-restraint, esp from sexual activity; chaste

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continent ³ British  

/ ˈkɒntɪnənt, ˌkɒntɪˈnɛntəl /

noun

1. one of the earth's large land masses (Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, North and South America, and Antarctica)

2. that part of the earth's crust that rises above the oceans and is composed of sialic rocks. Including the continental shelves, the continents occupy 30 per cent of the earth's surface

3. obsolete

   1. mainland as opposed to islands

   2. a continuous extent of land

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continent Scientific  

/ kŏn′tə-nənt /

1. One of the seven great landmasses of the Earth. The continents are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• continence
  noun
• continental
  adjective
• uncontinent
  adjective
• continentally
  adverb
• continently
  adverb
• uncontinently
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• continents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of continent

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin continent-, stem of continēns “holding together,” present participle of continēre “to hold together, keep in position,” equivalent to con- con- + -tinēre, combining form of tenēre “to hold”; see contain

Explanation

A continent is one of the seven largest landmasses found on Earth. Asia, Australia, and Africa are three continents. Can you name the other four? Some folks forget the continent of Antarctica, because so few humans live there—none of them permanently. And you might be surprised how many people think that Africa is a country and not a continent. Due to a process known as continental drift, the extremely slow movement of the continents across the face of the globe, our world looks very different from the way it did 100 million years ago.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

continent Continent continents

“A lot of the people that are in detention centers are the Indigenous people of the North American continent, the South American continent,” she continued.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

Europe is the fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

European bond yields slipped slightly following weaker-than-expected economic data, easing the outlook for sustained rate hikes on the continent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

During the Miocene, a geological period that lasted for millions of years, a vast lake covered a large portion of the continent.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

In October, Chicago’s all-black Eighth Infantry Regiment prepared to leave on the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the European continent.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield

The heat is threatening harvests across the Continent, raising the spectre of soaring food prices.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Newcastle have shifted policy this summer, targeting younger players on the Continent, with Lukas Hornicek the club's oldest arrival by a reasonable distance at 24 years of age.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The shift away from the center in the U.K. mirrored developments on the European Continent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026

The Continent has also turned to the U.S. to replace jet fuel it would normally get from the Middle East.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026

“This: Will the Great Continent hold two Orgoreyns?”

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

There would be a reduced schedule of 10 events a year, across five continents.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

So scientists anchor the world’s coordinates to far-off stillness: quasars, the luminous cores of galaxies billions of light-years away, observed nightly by radio telescopes across multiple continents and cross-checked with lasers bounced off satellites.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Important fossil sites do not always require travel to distant deserts or remote continents.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026

Her reporting spans three presidential campaigns, four administrations and four continents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

All of the neighboring planets were perfectly rendered, with clouds, continents, or impact craters covering their curved surfaces.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline