ANTARCTICA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Antarctica mean? 

• ANTARCTICA (noun)
  The noun ANTARCTICA has 1 sense:

1. an extremely cold continent at the south pole almost entirely below the Antarctic Circle; covered by an ice cap up to 13,000 feet deep

  Familiarity information: ANTARCTICA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ANTARCTICA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An extremely cold continent at the south pole almost entirely below the Antarctic Circle; covered by an ice cap up to 13,000 feet deep

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

Antarctic continent; Antarctica

Context example:

Antarctica is twice the size of Australia

Instance hypernyms:

continent (one of the large landmasses of the earth)

Meronyms (parts of "Antarctica"):

Adelie Coast; Adelie Land; Terre Adelie (a costal region of Antarctica to the south of Australia; noted for its large colonies of penguins)

Coats Land (a region of western Antarctica along the southeastern shore of the Weddell Sea)

Enderby Land (a region of Antarctica between Queen Maud Land and Wilkes Land; claimed by Australia)

Queen Maud Land (a region of Antarctica between Enderby Land and the Weddell Sea; claimed by Norway)

South Pole (the southernmost point of the Earth's axis)

Victoria Land (a mountainous area of Antarctica bounded by the Ross Sea and Wilkes Land)

Wilkes Land (a coastal region of Antarctica on the Indian Ocean to the south of Australia; most of the territory is claimed by Australia)

Admiralty Range (mountains in Antarctica to the north of Victoria Land)

Antarctic Peninsula; Palmer Peninsula (a large peninsula of Antarctica that extends some 1200 miles north toward South America; separates the Weddell Sea from the South Pacific)

Ross Sea (an arm of the southern Pacific Ocean in Antarctica)

Holonyms ("Antarctica" is a part of...):

Antarctic; Antarctic Zone; South Frigid Zone (the region around the south pole: Antarctica and surrounding waters)

 Context examples 

Before the discovery of the Hiawatha impact crater, scientists generally assumed that most evidence of past impacts in Greenland and Antarctica would have been wiped away by unrelenting erosion by the overlying ice.

(NASA Finds Possible Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice, NASA)

Asteroid TC4's closest approach to Earth will be over Antarctica at 1:42 AM EDT on Oct. 12 (10:42 p.m. PDT on Oct. 11).

(Asteroid Tracking Network Observes Close Approach, NASA)

Among the most significant: a previously unmeasured acceleration of glacier flow into Antarctica’s Getz Ice Shelf, on the southwestern part of the continent — likely a result of ice-shelf thinning.

(New Study Brings Antarctic Ice Loss Into Sharper Focus, NASA)

The proposed sanctuary would cover the ocean waters between South America and Africa, reaching close to Antarctica.

(Brazil to support South Atlantic whale sanctuary bid, Agência BRASIL)

A new NASA study finds the last remaining section of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening and likely to disintegrate completely before the end of the decade.

(Antarctica’s Larsen B Ice Shelf Nearing Its Final Act, NASA)

Altogether, these data represent more than 5.6 million microscopic and non-microscopic species from 35,000 locations across all the world's oceans and continents, except Antarctica.

(Researchers find that Earth may be home to 1 trillion species, NSF)

An interdisciplinary team of researchers using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica has measured how certain high-energy neutrinos are absorbed by the Earth, as opposed to passing through matter as most neutrinos do.

(Antarctic detector offers first look at how Earth stops high-energy neutrinos in their tracks, National Science Foundation)

Winter ice on the surface of Antarctica's Weddell Sea sometimes has an enormous hole called a polynya.

(Data from robotic drifters explain mysterious holes in Antarctic sea ice, National Science Foundation)

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the largest ice-free region of Antarctica and are considered a polar desert environment due to their low humidity and scarce precipitation.

(Extreme melt season leads to decade-long ecosystem changes in Antarctica's Dry Valleys, National Science Foundation)

Antarctica's ice sheet spans close to twice the area of the contiguous United States.

(Antarctic ice cliffs may not contribute to ice-sheet instability as much as predicted, National Science Foundation)