supercontinent

[ soo-per-kon-tn-uhnt ]

/ ˌsu pərˈkɒn tn ənt /

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noun Geology.

a hypothetical protocontinent of the remote geologic past that rifted apart to form the continents of today.

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Compare Pangaea.

Origin of supercontinent

First recorded in 1955–60; super- + continent

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. 2023

How to use supercontinent in a sentence

The Triassic Period ended with a bang beginning around 202 million years ago, as the supercontinent Pangea began to break apart.
Feathers may have helped dinosaurs survive the Triassic mass extinction|Carolyn Gramling|July 1, 2022|Science News
Eurasia, the supercontinent, is being reshaped before our eyes.
What Happens Next in Ukraine Could Change Europe Forever|Bruno Maçães|January 27, 2022|Time
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 Post
Eventually 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 Magazine

Progress 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 Magazine

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.