ETYM Latin continens, -entis, prop., p. pr. of continere to hold together, to repress: cf. French continent. Related to Contain.
Having control over urination and defecation.

Množina: continents

ETYM French continence, Latin continentia. Related to Continent, Countenance.
One of the large landmasses of the earth.
Any one of the seven large land masses of the Earth, as distinct from the oceans. They are Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica. Continents are constantly moving and evolving (see plate tectonics). A continent does not end at the coastline; its boundary is the edge of the shallow continental shelf, which may extend several hundred kilometers out to sea.
At the center of each continental mass lies a shield or craton, a deformed mass of old metamorphic rocks dating from Precambrian times. The shield is thick, compact, and solid (the Canadian Shield is an example), having undergone all the mountain-building activity it is ever likely to, and is usually worn flat. Around the shield is a concentric pattern of fold mountains, with older ranges, such as the Rockies, closest to the shield, and younger ranges, such as the coastal ranges of North America, farther away. This general concentric pattern is modified when two continental masses have drifted together and they become welded with a great mountain range along the join, the way Europe and N Asia are joined along the Urals. If a continent is torn apart, the new continental edges have no fold mountains; for instance, South America has fold mountains (the Andes) along its western flank, but none along the east where it tore away from Africa 200 million years ago.

1. Being or concerning or limited to a continent especially the continents of North America or Europe
2. Of or pertaining to or typical of Europe
3. Of or relating to or characteristic of a continent

Množina: Continentals

Resident of Europe, native European; soldier in the Continental Army (American Revolution)

Množina: continental breakfasts

A light breakfast (as of rolls or toast and coffee).

Množina: continental climates

Množina: continental congresses

In US history, the federal legislature of the original 13 states, acting as a provisional revolutionary government during the American Revolution. It convened in Philadelphia from 1774 until 1789, when the US Constitution was adopted. The Second Continental Congress, convened May 1775, was responsible for drawing up the Declaration of Independence and, in 1777, the Articles of Confederation. The Congress authorized an army to resist the British and issued paper money to finance the war effort. It also oversaw the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention.

Množina: continental crusts

Množina: continental divides

The watershed of a continent.

Množina: continental drifts

The gradual movement and formation of continents (as described by plate tectonics).
In geology, the theory that, about 250–200 million years ago, the Earth consisted of a single large continent (Pangaea), which subsequently broke apart to form the continents known today. The theory was proposed 1912 by German meteorologist Alfred Wegener, but such vast continental movements could not be satisfactorily explained until the study of plate tectonics in the 1960s.
The term “continental drift” is not strictly correct, since land masses do not drift through the oceans. The continents form part of a plate, and the amount of crust created at divergent plate margins must equal the amount of crust destroyed at subduction zones.