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subcontinent

 
Dictionary: sub·con·ti·nent   (sŭb'kŏn'tə-nənt, sŭb-kŏn'-) pronunciation
 
n.
  1. A large landmass, such as India, that is part of a continent but is considered either geographically or politically as an independent entity.
  2. A large landmass, such as Greenland, that is smaller than a continent.
subcontinental sub'con·ti·nen'tal (-nĕn'tl) adj.
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WordNet: subcontinent
 
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a large and distinctive landmass (as India or Greenland) that is a distinct part of some continent


 
Wikipedia: Subcontinent
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The Indian subcontinent

A subcontinent is a large, relatively self-contained landmass forming a subdivision of a continent. By dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies "having a certain geographical or political independence" from the rest of the continent,[1] or "a vast and more or less self-contained subdivision of a continent."[2]

The phrase the Subcontinent, used on its own in English, commonly refers to South Asia.[citation needed] The term subcontinent includes India, some parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh. The region is largely a peninsula of Eurasia and Asia south of the Himalayas and constitutes a geoculturaly distinct region within Asia. The region however contains desert, plateau, rain forest, mountains, and a myriad of languages, races, and religions.

The Middle Eastern subcontinent

The Middle East is a subcontinent in southwestern Eurasia and Asia and a geocultural region within Asia. The Middle East is geographically contained from Europe, Asia and Africa, clockwise, by the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Iranian plateau, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, the Sinai Peninsula, the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea, and lies largely on the Arabian tectonic plate. The common definition of the term also includes Egypt, which lies mainly in northeastern Africa.

Greenland

Europe is a large peninsula of western Eurasia[3] and fits the profile of subcontinent, but is afforded the political status of a continent. The European peninsula is relatively contained from the rest of Asia by the Ural Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea.

The term subcontinent can also refer to Greenland, being a large island landmass that is smaller than the recognized continents.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition. 1989. Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. 2002. Merriam-Webster. retrieved 11 March 2007.
  3. ^ "The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition". Houghton Mifflin Company.. 2005. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/europe. Retrieved on 2008-08-24. 
  4. ^ "Random House Unabridged Dictionary". Random House, Inc.. 2006. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/subcontinent. Retrieved on 2008-06-15. 

 
Translations: Subcontinent
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - subkontinent

Nederlands (Dutch)
belangrijk onderdeel van een continent, als het ware een continent

Français (French)
n. - sous-continent

Deutsch (German)
n. - Subkontinent

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (γεωγρ.) τεράστια γεωγραφική έκταση, η Ινδική χερσόνησος

Italiano (Italian)
subcontinente

Português (Portuguese)
n. - subcontinente (m)

Русский (Russian)
субконтинент

Español (Spanish)
n. - subcontinente

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - subkontinent

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
次大陆

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 次大陸

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 아대륙

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 亜大陸

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شبه قارة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תת-יבשת (למשל: הודו)‬


 
 
Learn More
Dravidian architecture (architecture)
Indian subcontinent (region, Asia/Pakistan/India/Bangladesh/Nepal/Bhutan/Sri Lanka)
British India (part of the Indian subcontinent)

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Subcontinent" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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