continent - one of the large landmasses of the earth; "there are seven continents"; "pioneers had to cross the continent on foot"Africa - the second largest continent; located south of Europe and bordered to the west by the South Atlantic and to the east by the Indian Ocean Antarctic continent, Antarctica - an extremely cold continent at the south pole almost entirely below the Antarctic Circle; covered by an ice cap up to 13,000 feet deep Asia - the largest continent with 60% of the earth's population; it is joined to Europe on the west to form Eurasia; it is the site of some of the world's earliest civilizations Australia - the smallest continent; between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean craton - the part of a continent that is stable and forms the central mass of the continent; typically Precambrian Eurasia - the land mass formed by the continents of Europe and Asia Europe - the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles Gondwanaland - a hypothetical continent that (according to plate tectonic theory) broke up later into India and Australia and Africa and South America and Antarctica landmass - a large continuous extent of land Laurasia - a hypothetical continent that (according to plate tectonic theory) broke up later into North America and Europe and Asia North America - a continent (the third largest) in the western hemisphere connected to South America by the Isthmus of Panama Pangaea, Pangea - (plate tectonics) a hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland South America - a continent in the western hemisphere connected to North America by the Isthmus of Panama subcontinent - a large and distinctive landmass (as India or Greenland) that is a distinct part of some continent |