"acroorca2002 <orc@o...>" <orc@o...> wrote:
> but seriously & strictly speaking the continents are just the 4
largest islands in the world namely
> 1 afroeurasia
> 2 america
> 3 antarctica
> 4 australia
> period
And now from the dictionaries:
Collins Cobuild English Dictionary:
A continent is a very large area of land, such as Africa or Asia,
that consists of several countries.
Purnell's Family Dictionary:
Continent: continuous large stretch of land, esp. major divisions of
land-surface of world (Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australasia,
Europe, North America, South America).
Microsoft Encarta:
Continent:
1. land mass: any one of the seven large continuous land masses that
constitute most of the dry land on the surface of the earth. They
are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and
South America
2. geography. land above sea level: the part of the earth's crust
that rises above the oceans.
[Mid-16th century. From Latin terra continens, "continuous land",
from the participle of continere (see contain).]
My conclusions:
there are seven continents;
Australia or Australasia are the most usual names for the smallest
continent, which is also called Oceania;
the islands are not continents (are not continuous land masses),
therefore they don't belong to any continent;
the continents have no political borders;
in geopolitical sense, what is usually called continent would be
better called "part of the world".
Francisco,
Portugal