Continent

Continent, from Latin "continere" (to hold together) and terra continens (the continuous land), is a very large contiguous landmass, often delimited by tectonic boundaries, which assist in distinguishing a small continent (such as Australia) from a large island, such as Greenland. Continental masses often extend a number of miles out into the ocean, only shallowly submerged; this region is known as the continental shelf.

The continents of Earth are Eurasia (very often divided into Europe and Asia, which exist on separate sides of the Ural Mountains), Africa (occasionally included as a part of the Eurasian supercontinent which is then referred to as Eurafrasia, America (sometimes divided into North America and South America), Antarctica and Australia; however, there is no standard definition for the number of continents; we could even think in "Arctica" for the land (or sea ice) of the Inuit in the arctic north pole.

Historically (hundreds of millions of years ago), a number of other continents and supercontinents have existed, such as Pangaea, Laurasia and Gondwanaland; these have been broken up and reassembled into the currently existing configuration, by the process of continental drift.