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).

---

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)

---

North America Cultural  

1. Third-largest continent (after Asia and Africa), comprising Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America.

---

Other Word Forms

• North American
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of North America

First recorded in 1680–90

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

North America

Cindy Beaulieu, chief investment officer at Conning North America, said it now appears that the Fed might wait to hike rates until year-end.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

Ireland said future stops will be announced in the fall, with plans to expand throughout North America and, ultimately, to the United Kingdom.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

Selling a majority stake in those once-promising Chinese operations and bringing the customer experience in North America closer to its roots may well have been among the best choices on an unappetizing menu.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

With the team netting 20 times in North America, Deschamps has arguably laid the foundations for his successor's attacking set-up.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

I also loved stories of wolves, bears, and wolverines in North America and Canada, jaguars anacondas and sloths in South America, orangutans, Indian elephants, and tapirs in Asia, and so on.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall