What is America??? Is a Continent of is just the United States of America?
365586
The term "America" is not the formally correct name for anything in particular.  You're right: the name comes from Amerigo Vespucci.  If I remember correctly some French guy started calling the western hemisphere America, after that Vespucci dude's name, and it caught on.  An alternative name for the western hemisphere is "Columbia," as in Washington, District of Columbia or the South American country called by the Spanish version of the name "Colombia."  I guess somewhere along the line people started shortening the name United States of America to simply America.  Then that caught on.  I don't know why those people didn't just shorten it to USA.  Anyhow, I think when most people these days say "America" what they mean is USA.  Of course the case could be different in a few hundred years.  It's funny how language evolves, huh?
709010
There are 7 continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Austrailia, and Antarctica.
761167
Good question, and a tough one to answer, although I'm skeptical of the "all known criteria" piece of it.  I did browse much of the Wikipedia entry, and I also have a globe here to look at.\n\nTo rephrase this question, I guess we could say, (1) why is it not a continent, and (2) why is it a subcontinent?\n\nTraditionally, there are six or seven continents -- North & South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.  Sometimes Europe & Asia are combined into Eurasia, and some people like to combine the Americas.\n\nSize and geographic separation seem to be important ... the Central America connection is pretty narrow, as is the Suez connection.  On the other hand, the Ural mountains separating Europe from Asia is an ancient plate boundary (similar to the Appalachians, and much older than the Himalayas), and the Ural boundary certainly is not "narrow."  In that case, however, there are huge historical cultural differences between, for example, western Europe and East Asia.\n\nIn terms of size, Australia is the smallest continent, and Greenland is the largest island.  India is much closer in size to Greenland than to Australia.  (Also compare Madagascar, a large island drifting away from Africa.  The tectonic activity there is similar to India.)\n\nSo on the question of "why isn't it a continent," I'd say size matters a lot -- India isn't big enough -- and I'd say the closest boundary comparison is between the Himalaya barrier and the Urals.  West of the Urals is much, much larger than south of the Himalayas.\n\nCultural comparisons matter too, and by this measure, India could be considered a continent in its own right.  The Indian population is significantly different than the neighboring Oriental and Caucasian peoples.\n\nWhen you balance all this stuff, I guess you say Europe is its own continent -- it's big and culturally differentiable; but India is not a continent because it's not big enough.\n\nThe other part of the question is, why is it a subcontinent?  There, the Himalayas and, to a lesser extent, the Indian Plate, make a big difference.  Because of the mountains, India is geograpically separated from the rest of Asia.\n\nIt's also a large peninsula.  In this regard, we must compare with the Arabian Peninsula (which sits on the Arabian Plate), and maybe with Asia Minor, the boundary of which (by looking at a globe) may be said to extend from the Persion Gulf to the eastern end of the Black Sea, thus comprising a large area encompassing Turkey, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.  The other obvious large peninsula is Western Europe itself, bounded on the east by a line extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic.\n\nBut neither of those peninsulas have the Himalaya Mountain barrier.\n\nSo putting that altogether, I guess that's why India is a subcontinent and not a continent.  And since it seems to be the only generally recognized subcontinent in the world, that makes it pretty unique.
1070406
Greenland, a Danish self-governing island and the world's largest, is part of North America geographically and on the same tectonic plate (the North American Plate) but is not considered to be part of the continent politically.
579228
Someone living in the continent of Europe considers themselves European. ie someone in Switzerland is a European, even though they're not a member of the EU.People in the UK are also Europeans..\n\nTechnically I think, you're right, a Costarrican does count as an 'American' but that term has just come to stand for people from the USA.
732902
There are definitely more mountain ranges than continents.  Think of it this way, there can be several mountain ranges on each continent.  In North America alone, I can count three.
791313
IT IS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
41209
you mean eurasia\nit's a mix between continent europe and continent Asia
194764
e. United States of America
801024
The continents are divided based on the geological and geographical locations. We have seven continents on our earth. Viz., Asia, North America, Africa, Australia, Antartica, Europe & South America.
190772
The United States of America
662695
You are right. It can be an extension of Asia because there is no real delineation between Asia and Europe, like Africa, Americas and Australia. We can as well call it Eurasia. Whaddya say?
132465
there are 7 continents in the world: Africa, Antarctica, Asia(largest), Australia(smallest), Europe, North America, and South America.
136107
yes, I am certainly aware of this.  North America has 3 countries, Central America has 7 or 8 (I forget) and South America has a lot (sorry, I don't know that either).\n\nI think it all started when we called ourselves The United States of America.  We were already refered to as "The Americans" in England (since England owned the Colonies and Canada I guess it was a natural thing to do when refering to the far away place.  We still do it today when we speak of African or Asian people).\n\nIt isn't so much of a stereotype as it is a missuse of words.
458467
People identify themselves with their proper country name, not their continent's name. For example, British, German, French, not European (though this term is gaining broader use with the implementation of the EU). Or Japanese, Chinese, Korean, not Asian (Country origin compared with general ethnicity).\n\nSince the United States is the only country in either North or South America with the term "America" in it's proper country name, that term has been used as short hand to refer to anyone who is a citizen of the United States of America. This may change, however, as the world switches from individual country economics & politics to continental economics & politics.
173266
The United States, \nsince America geographically refers to the entire new world; north, central and south.
656142
It annoys me when people say there is continent called Australasia. Australasia is simply a geographic point. Oceania is not a continent. Aside from a region in FIFA for world cup soccer qualifiers we don't even use it in Australia. The continent is Australia. So I do agree with you. Oceania is not a continent and just for the record, Indonesia is in ASIA.