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From the 16th century the English noun continent was derived from the term continent land, meaning continuous or connected land [5] and translated from the Latin terra continens. [6] The noun was used to mean "a connected or continuous tract of land" or mainland. [5]
The word Oceania comes from the English word ocean for 'a large body of water'. It is ultimately derived from Greek Ὠκεανός (Okeanos), [23] the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth. In Greek mythology, it is personified as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys.
Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum, forests, fish, water, rice, copper and silver. Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in China, Taiwan , South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, and Singapore.
In other non-English-speaking countries Australia and Eurasia are thought of as continents, while Asia, Europe, and Oceania are regarded as "parts of the world". [ 38 ] [ 39 ] Nevertheless, various writers from English -speaking countries have described Oceania as a continent over the years.
It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, [2] [3] – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by some, simply as the Continent. [4] When Eurasia is regarded as a single continent, Europe is treated both as a continent and subcontinent .
Eurasia (/ j ʊəˈr eɪ ʒ ə / yoor-AY-zhə, also UK: /-ʃ ə /-shə) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. [3] [4] According to some geographers, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. [4]
Continents are often thought of as distinct landmasses and may include any islands that are part of the associated continental shelf. When multiple continents form a single contiguous land connection, the connected continents may be viewed as a single landmass. Earth's largest landmasses are (starting with largest): [6] [7] [8]
Since the 1950s, [19] 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. [20] [21] [5] When conceived as a unitary continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular.