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Since the 1950s, [17] however, North America and South America have generally been considered by English speakers as separate continents, and taken together are called the Americas, or more rarely America. [18] [19] [3] When conceived as a unitary continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular.
A map of North America's physical, political, and population characteristics as of 2018. North America is a continent [b] in the Northern and Western Hemispheres. [c] North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean.
The central and southern portions of the continent are occupied by the contiguous United States, Mexico, and numerous smaller states in Central America and in the Caribbean. The continent is delimited on the southeast by most geographers at the Darién watershed along the Colombia - Panama border, placing all of Panama within North America.
The Continental Divide in North America in red and other drainage divides in North America The Continental Divide in Central America and South America. The Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Great Divide, the Western Divide or simply the Continental Divide; Spanish: Divisoria continental de las Américas, Gran Divisoria) is the principal, and largely mountainous ...
The Americas, also known as America, [1] are lands of the Western Hemisphere, composed of numerous entities and regions variably defined by geography, politics, and culture. The Americas are recognized in the English-speaking world to include two separate continents: North America and South America.
North America is a continent [1] in the Earth's Northern and Western Hemispheres. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean , on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean , on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea , and on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean ; South America lies to the southeast.
The term "United States," when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. [1]
The border between North America and South America is at some point on the Darién Mountains watershed that divides along the Colombia–Panama border where the isthmus meets the South American continent (see Darién Gap). Virtually all atlases list Panama as a state falling entirely within North America and/or Central America. [116] [117]