Continent

A continent is any of several very large terrestrial regions identified by convention rather than by any single strict geological criterion; depending on where the lines are drawn, a continent can be treated as one large landmass on its own, a landmass together with its nearby islands on the same continental shelf, or a portion of a larger landmass, as with Asia and Europe within the single landmass of Eurasia. Because of these differing conventions the number of continents recognized ranges from as few as four to as many as seven, with most English speaking countries using the seven continent scheme of Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia; other schemes instead merge some of these, for example combining Asia and Europe into Eurasia, North America and South America into the Americas, or Africa, Asia and Europe into Afro-Eurasia.