There are two issues involved in being a continent (being continental?), I should think--the definition itself and fitting the definition. My dictionary says a continent is a "large land mass," so there's no way Oceania would fit that, nor do I see any way to exclude Antarctica. But perhaps someone can tell me how there's any justification for calling Asia and Europe two continents? Indeed, I've seen references to "the Eurasian continent," and a recent history of Europe calls Europe just a "large peninsula." It has always seemed to me that to consider Europe and Asia separate continents is tantamount to calling England, Wales, and Scotland three islands. The next question is, who decides how large a "land mass" has to be before it's a continent and not just a large island? Is there a square-mile dividing line? I'm reminded of the movie about the Englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain--when does a hill become a mountain, and when does an island become a continent? --David Haberstich