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epicontinental

American  
[ep-i-kon-tn-en-tl] / ˌɛp ɪˌkɒn tnˈɛn tl /

adjective

  1. found or located in or on a continent.

    epicontinental minerals; an epicontinental sea.


epicontinental British  
/ ˌɛpɪˌkɒntɪˈnɛntəl /

adjective

  1. (esp of a sea) situated on a continental shelf or continent

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of epicontinental

First recorded in 1900–05; epi- + continental


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The epicontinental sea was shoaled and narrowed, and muds were washed in from the adjacent lands.

From The Elements of Geology by William Harmon Norton

In the interior the Mississippian is composed chiefly of limestones, with some shales, which tell of a clear, warm, epicontinental sea swarming with crinoids, corals, and shells, and occasionally clouded with silt from the land.

From The Elements of Geology by William Harmon Norton

We can hardly account for this except by a shallow-water connection between the two ancient epicontinental seas.

From The Elements of Geology by William Harmon Norton

The known deposits all point to shallow waters of epicontinental seas; no abyssal formations have been recognized.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 "Destructors" to "Diameter" by Various

The great interior sea, epicontinental, the geologists call it, seems to have been fermenting and laboring for untold aeons in building up these parts of the continent.

From Time and Change by John Burroughs

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