Pangaea

or Pan·ge·a

[pan-jee-uh]

noun Geology.

the hypothetical landmass that existed when all continents were joined, from about 300 to 200 million years ago.

Compare supercontinent.

Origin of Pangaea

1920–25; pan- + Greek gaîa earth; allegedly coined by German meteorologist Alfred L. Wegener (1880–1930)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for pangea

Contemporary Examples of pangea

Pangea is all about the cultural and social facets of particular peoples and places.
Saatchi Resurrects Ancient Pangaea with Show Featuring South American and African Artists
Chloë Ashby
April 4, 2014
Lawrence McDonald is a managing director of Pangea Capital Management and the cofounder of Convertbond.com.
The Lehman Brothers Hangover
Lawrence McDonald
September 15, 2010

British Dictionary definitions for pangea

Pangaea

Pangea

noun

the ancient supercontinent, comprising all the present continents joined together, which began to break up about 200 million years agoSee also Laurasia, Gondwanaland

Word Origin for Pangaea

C20: from Greek, literally: all-earth

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

Word Origin and History for pangea

Pangaea

"supercontinent of the late Paleozoic era," 1924, from Greek pan- "all" (see pan-) + gaia "earth" (see gaia). First attested in German, 1920, in Alfred Wegener's "Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane" (not found in 1914 first edition, according to OED).

pangea in Science

Pangaea

[păn-jē′ə]

A supercontinent made up of all the world's present landmasses joined together in the configuration they are thought to have had during the Permian and Triassic Periods. According to the theory of plate tectonics, Pangaea later broke up into Laurasia and Gondwanaland, which eventually broke up into the continents we know today.

pangea in Culture

Pangaea

[(pan-jee-uh)]

A former “supercontinent” on the Earth. In the distant past a large landmass, Pangaea, included all the present continents, which broke up and drifted apart. (See plate tectonics.)