This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.
supercontinent
[ soo-per-kon-tn-uhnt ]
/ ˌsu pərˈkɒn tn ənt /
Save This Word!
This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.
noun Geology.
a hypothetical protocontinent of the remote geologic past that rifted apart to form the continents of today.
QUIZ
QUIZ YOURSELF ON AFFECT VS. EFFECT!
In effect, this quiz will prove whether or not you have the skills to know the difference between “affect” and “effect.”
Question 1 of 7
The rainy weather could not ________ my elated spirits on my graduation day.
Meet Grammar CoachImprove Your Writing
Compare Pangaea.
Words nearby supercontinent
supercolumniation, super-committee, supercomputer, superconductivity, superconductor, supercontinent, supercool, supercow, supercrat, supercritical, supercurrent
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022
How to use supercontinent in a sentence
So it was that about 300 million years ago, tectonic plates again squeezed together — this time to create a supercontinent called Pangea.
How Earth’s tumultuous history gave the Mid-Atlantic its beloved destinations|Walter Nicklin|June 4, 2021|Washington PostEventually the supercontinent broke apart, and new mountains grew and exported nutrients again.
Scientists Pin Down When Earth’s Crust Cracked, Then Came to Life|Howard Lee|March 25, 2021|Quanta MagazineProgress toward complexity stalled during the “boring billion” era, the roughly billion-year reign of the supercontinent Nuna-Rodinia.
Scientists Pin Down When Earth’s Crust Cracked, Then Came to Life|Howard Lee|March 25, 2021|Quanta MagazineScience aside, it’s fascinating to travel so far into the past, when just three oceans—the Mirovoi Ocean, Mozambique Ocean, and Mawson Sea—lapped at the shores of supercontinent Rodinia.
See a Billion-Year Dance of Earth’s Tectonic Plates in 40 Seconds|Jason Dorrier|February 14, 2021|Singularity Hub
British Dictionary definitions for supercontinent
supercontinent
/ (ˈsuːpəˌkɒntɪnənt) /
noun
a great landmass thought to have existed in the geological past and to have split into smaller landmasses, which drifted and formed the present continents
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
Scientific definitions for supercontinent
supercontinent
[ sōō′pər-kŏn′tə-nənt ]
A large continent that, according to the theory of plate tectonics, is thought to have split into smaller continents in the geologic past. The supercontinent Pangaea is believed to have formed when earlier continental landmasses came together sometime before the Permian Period, staying together until after the Triassic Period, when it broke into the smaller supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwanaland. These supercontinents are believed to have later separated into the landmasses that correspond to the current continents. Other supercontinents are hypothesized to have formed and broken apart earlier in geologic time.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.