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# continent

«continent» in Mova's school dictionary: **one of the very large areas of land on Earth** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a continent, continents)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A continent is one of the very large areas of land on Earth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#m1)

2) Most people count seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia (Oceania), Europe, North America and South America. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#m2)

3) In Britain, «the Continent» can mean mainland Europe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In geography lessons, continents are shown on maps and globes, and countries belong to continents (Canada is in North America). Asia is the biggest continent and has the most people; Antarctica is the coldest and has no permanent towns. In science, continents sit on huge plates that move very slowly. Phrases: on every continent, the seven continents, continental.

### examples

- There are seven continents on Earth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x1)
- Asia is the largest continent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x2)
- Penguins live in Antarctica, the coldest continent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x3)
- The USA and Canada are on the continent of North America. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x4)
- Australia is both a country and a continent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x5)
- We coloured each continent a different colour on the map. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x6)
- The Amazon rainforest is in South America. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x7)
- Long ago the continents were joined together. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x8)
- I am, however, not so much concerned with the original explanation of the Jataka as to trace its travels across the continents of Asia, Africa, and America. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/#x9)

### note

Countable: a continent, continents; names of continents start with capital letters. Different countries teach different counts (some say six or five continents), so seven is the usual school answer in English-speaking countries. An island is not a continent, though Australia is called an island continent. «Continental» is the adjective.

### In the corpora

- [Red foxes live on more continents than any other wild meat-eating mammal, and many live in cities such as London.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/141-zootopia-real-foxes-and-rabbits/6/)
- [There are about 250 kinds of owl, and they live on every continent except Antarctica.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/0/)
- [Maize now grows on every continent except Antarctica, and much of it feeds farm animals.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/345-rice-maize-and-potatoes-the-plants-that-feed-the-world/17/)
- [La francophonie means all the people and countries that speak French; French is spoken on every continent.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/5/)
- [An island is land with water all round; the biggest is Greenland, because Australia is counted as a continent instead.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/6-islands-seas-and-lakes/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «continent» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/continent/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.