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

The Colleen Hoover adaptation scored $32.6 million in ticket sales in North America.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

For years, the Ames crater was thought to belong to a cluster of major meteor impacts across North America dating to roughly 467.5 million years ago.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026

And Bradley Saunders, North America economist at Capital Economics, said the lower figure was “not disastrous“, adding that a drop in government roles and temporary visa policy changes weighed on overall growth.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Theme park operator Six Flags, which has properties throughout North America, says it does not comment on pending litigation.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

“The pace of life in North America is different from Britain as you will soon discover,” the guidebook informed me.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri