supercontinent

[ soo-per-kon-tn-uh nt ]

/ ˌsu pərˈkɒn tn ənt /

noun Geology.

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

Nearby words

Compare Pangaea.

Origin of supercontinent

First recorded in 1955–60; super- + continent

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

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

Science 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.