<p>Australia does get widely referred to as an island as well as as a continent - an island-continent sometimes. My understanding is that "continent" in terms of geology refers to the largest land mass of a continental plate and is more a matter of convention - a general agreement - than precise definition. Such definitions have been subject to revision. </p>

<p>This definition would have come after continental plates and plate tectonics were confirmed and widely accepted; proposed first by Alfred Wegener in 1912, acceptance did not come until the 1950's and 60's. Naming Australia an island predated this definition and still persists in popular usage but using the current definition it is a continent. </p>

<p>Greenland, being a part of the North American Plate but not it's largest landmass, gets defined as an island and is now considered the world's largest island.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-02T16:41:30.363Z
I still don't get it something is a continent as opposed to being an island just doesn't make sense?
Schwarz Kugelblitz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-02T22:16:02.313Z
@SchwarzKugelblitz - It looks like an Etymology issue, rather than Geology, ie the study of words. Geology, like other sciences, seeks to clearly define the terminology they use, but these terms existed before the clear definitions; a continent was really big and Islands weren't. Which was which was a matter of agreement, or, for Australia, disagreement. If an island were simply land surrounded by water then Africa, Europe and Asia would be 1 island, the largest, then 2 islands after the Suez Canal opened. I suppose Geological Societies decided on the current definition.
Ken Fabian
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-01T01:46:53.597Z
2019-12-01T01:52:22.387Z
2019-12-01T01:52:22.387Z
Ken Fabian
<p>Assuming an island is defined as a body of land surrounded by water, then the largest island in the world is the Europe and Asia land mass (with Africa included if the Suez canal is not regarded as a body of water because it is man made).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-26T01:25:10.780Z
Looks like in the past it was even referred to as [The World Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Eurasia)
JeopardyTempest
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-26T00:52:38.650Z
2022-01-26T01:45:55.633Z
2022-01-26T01:45:55.633Z
Ross Fitzgerald
<p>National Geographic has a nice <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/island/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">webpage</a>, that explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are six major kinds of islands: continental (1), tidal (2), barrier (3), oceanic (4), coral (5), and artificial (6).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The article continues that when Pangaea broke up, &quot;some large chunks of land split. These fragments of land became islands. Greenland and Madagascar are these type of continental islands.&quot;</p>
<p>Referring to an image (below) of Pangaea (source: Amante, C. and Eakins, B. W. 2009), it is clear that Australia is it's own continental mass, while Greenland is a piece of a larger mass.  Despite Australia historically being referred to as an island country &quot;<a href="https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/B00W1WSFGQ" rel="nofollow noreferrer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">because of its lack of land borders</a>&quot;, it is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_island_countries" rel="nofollow noreferrer">not an island</a>.  There is a nice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Beyond_four_continents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia article</a> that explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Europeans discovered Australia in 1606, but for some time it was taken as part of Asia. By the late 18th century, some geographers considered it a continent in its own right, making it the sixth (or fifth for those still taking America as a single continent). In 1813, Samuel Butler wrote of Australia as &quot;New Holland, an immense island, which some geographers dignify with the appellation of another continent&quot; and the Oxford English Dictionary was just as equivocal some decades later. It was in the 1950s that the concept of Oceania as a &quot;great division&quot; of the world was replaced by the concept of Australia as a continent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It's also important to consider that sea level has a major role in how much continental mass is &quot;island&quot;.  If you consider land bridges like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Land_Bridge" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Thule Bridge</a>, one could postulate that Greenland has not always been an &quot;island&quot;.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/aiwbE.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/aiwbE.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T01:16:52.870Z
So which of them do you say is the largest island in the world?
Snack Exchange
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T03:50:10.633Z
The one that isn't Australia ;)
f.thorpe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T03:56:17.517Z
So why don't you include it in your answer? The OP wants to know which of them is the largest. Knowing the type of island for each doesn't help without conclusion.
Snack Exchange
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T04:01:30.113Z
That's funny, I thought the question was "Is Australia the largest island".  I've stated that Australia is not an island.
f.thorpe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T04:04:03.283Z
Australia is a continetal mass consisting of several islands which one of them is the largest among all. Don't you think?
Snack Exchange
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T04:08:11.010Z
Go ahead and read the 2nd paragraph on this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_island_countries
f.thorpe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T04:13:59.760Z
That's just a play with words! Who on Earth believes mainland Australia is not an island? In order to be considered an island, a land mass should be surrounded by water, period.
Snack Exchange
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T04:16:07.730Z
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/146722/discussion-between-f-thorpe-and-snack-exchange).
f.thorpe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T00:31:10.777Z
2023-06-17T04:24:37.810Z
2023-06-17T04:24:37.810Z
f.thorpe
<p>I had participated in a quiz recently and one of the questions was 'which is the largest island in the world?'. I wrote Australia as the answer remembering that it was the 5th largest country in the world and none of the top 4 were islands.</p>

<p>However (and rather dreadfully) the answer given was Greenland.I took this up with the committee providing the solutions, but they simply said that Australia isn't an island and is a continental mass?</p>

<p>I googled it and found the same argument online which seemed to confirm that Greenland was the largest island.</p>

<p>But Australia is a country and the collection of islands which is a continent (more accurately described as Oceania ) is sometimes called Australia. Neither of these names would still change the fact that Australia (the country) being an island is the largest island in the world! Can someone please clarify this for me?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-01T04:34:37.090Z
Australia is a country which consists of the continent of Australia, plus a number of islands (over 8000, per Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Australia ) Tasmania is the largest of these.  Some of those are part of the Australian continent, others aren't.  Politics being politics, it's certainly conceivable that Australia the country could fragment into several countries, or merge with/be conquered by some other country within a human lifetime.  Not really plausible for the continent to do so :-)
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-02T11:22:45.967Z
This question is on topic in my opinion
marsisalie
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-03T07:13:17.983Z
Following your argrument Eurasifrica would be the largest island. All three continents are connected, they are sorrounded by water... which makes them an island?
Erik
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-03T12:19:11.777Z
Another point one could argue about: do you count the ice sheet or the [bedrock](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Topographic_map_of_Greenland_bedrock.jpg)?  Apparently, Greenland would remain a single island, and probably remain the world's largest if measuring the above-sea-level bedrock (or quickly become so again due to isostatic rebound).
gerrit
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-26T01:14:55.480Z
Just a note: [Australia is the 6th largest country, not 5th](https://www.worldometers.info/geography/largest-countries-in-the-world/).  Minor point.
JeopardyTempest
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-02-03T13:04:02.367Z
You've all missed the point. If you define an island as a continuous piece of land surrounded by water, then Europe-Asia is the biggest island, not Australia. the Americas are also bigger than Australia. However that is also the definition of a landmass, of which Australia is one. So if you exclude Europe-Asia and the Americas on that basis, then you have to exclude Australia too. The question was not what is the largest island country, but what is the largest island. Totally different question.
Angela WDP
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-02-04T01:10:26.137Z
Sounds to me as if we are splitting hairs over names. Whether Australia is an "island" is as important to studying it as whether Pluto is a "planet" is to studying that orb.
Oscar Lanzi
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-02-06T04:29:57.993Z
An island is a piece of **sub-continental** land completely surrounded by water. That is why Australia is not an island as it is a continent.
David García Bodego
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-17T01:11:27.000Z
@jamesqf Even if it was consisted of 1,000,000 islands, the largest of them which is over 7 million km$^2$ in area should be called the largest island of the world. I can't understand the reasoning of people who say Greenland is the largest in the world! Even if we compare the area of all the islands that consist Australia with all the islands that consist Greenland, again Australia wins.
Snack Exchange
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-26T16:01:47.933Z
I would argue Afro-Eurasia is the largest island.
John
<geography><continent><islands>
Is Australia the largest island?
Schwarz Kugelblitz
# Is Australia the largest island?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-11-30)

I had participated in a quiz recently and one of the questions was 'which is the largest island in the world?'. I wrote Australia as the answer remembering that it was the 5th largest country in the world and none of the top 4 were islands.

However (and rather dreadfully) the answer given was Greenland.I took this up with the committee providing the solutions, but they simply said that Australia isn't an island and is a continental mass?

I googled it and found the same argument online which seemed to confirm that Greenland was the largest island.

But Australia is a country and the collection of islands which is a continent (more accurately described as Oceania ) is sometimes called Australia. Neither of these names would still change the fact that Australia (the country) being an island is the largest island in the world! Can someone please clarify this for me?

**Tags:** geography, continent, islands

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Australia is a country which consists of the continent of Australia, plus a number of islands (over 8000, per Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Australia ) Tasmania is the largest of these.  Some of those are part of the Australian continent, others aren't.  Politics being politics, it's certainly conceivable that Australia the country could fragment into several countries, or merge with/be conquered by some other country within a human lifetime.  Not really plausible for the continent to do so :-)  
> **username_2**: This question is on topic in my opinion  
> **username_3**: Following your argrument Eurasifrica would be the largest island. All three continents are connected, they are sorrounded by water... which makes them an island?  
> **username_4**: Another point one could argue about: do you count the ice sheet or the [bedrock](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Topographic_map_of_Greenland_bedrock.jpg)?  Apparently, Greenland would remain a single island, and probably remain the world's largest if measuring the above-sea-level bedrock (or quickly become so again due to isostatic rebound).  
> **username_5**: Just a note: [Australia is the 6th largest country, not 5th](https://www.worldometers.info/geography/largest-countries-in-the-world/).  Minor point.  
> **username_6**: You've all missed the point. If you define an island as a continuous piece of land surrounded by water, then Europe-Asia is the biggest island, not Australia. the Americas are also bigger than Australia. However that is also the definition of a landmass, of which Australia is one. So if you exclude Europe-Asia and the Americas on that basis, then you have to exclude Australia too. The question was not what is the largest island country, but what is the largest island. Totally different question.  
> **username_7**: Sounds to me as if we are splitting hairs over names. Whether Australia is an "island" is as important to studying it as whether Pluto is a "planet" is to studying that orb.  
> **username_8**: An island is a piece of **sub-continental** land completely surrounded by water. That is why Australia is not an island as it is a continent.  
> **username_9**: @username_1 Even if it was consisted of 1,000,000 islands, the largest of them which is over 7 million km$^2$ in area should be called the largest island of the world. I can't understand the reasoning of people who say Greenland is the largest in the world! Even if we compare the area of all the islands that consist Australia with all the islands that consist Greenland, again Australia wins.  
> **username_10**: I would argue Afro-Eurasia is the largest island.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_11 on 2019-12-01. Score: 8 | Accepted answer

Australia does get widely referred to as an island as well as as a continent - an island-continent sometimes. My understanding is that "continent" in terms of geology refers to the largest land mass of a continental plate and is more a matter of convention - a general agreement - than precise definition. Such definitions have been subject to revision.

This definition would have come after continental plates and plate tectonics were confirmed and widely accepted; proposed first by Alfred Wegener in 1912, acceptance did not come until the 1950's and 60's. Naming Australia an island predated this definition and still persists in popular usage but using the current definition it is a continent.

Greenland, being a part of the North American Plate but not it's largest landmass, gets defined as an island and is now considered the world's largest island.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I still don't get it something is a continent as opposed to being an island just doesn't make sense?  
> **username_11**: @username_0 - It looks like an Etymology issue, rather than Geology, ie the study of words. Geology, like other sciences, seeks to clearly define the terminology they use, but these terms existed before the clear definitions; a continent was really big and Islands weren't. Which was which was a matter of agreement, or, for Australia, disagreement. If an island were simply land surrounded by water then Africa, Europe and Asia would be 1 island, the largest, then 2 islands after the Suez Canal opened. I suppose Geological Societies decided on the current definition.  

---

### Answer by username_12 on 2022-01-26. Score: 5

Assuming an island is defined as a body of land surrounded by water, then the largest island in the world is the Europe and Asia land mass (with Africa included if the Suez canal is not regarded as a body of water because it is man made).

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Looks like in the past it was even referred to as [The World Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Eurasia)  

---

### Answer by username_13 on 2023-06-17. Score: 1

National Geographic has a nice [webpage](https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/island/), that explains:

> There are six major kinds of islands: continental (1), tidal (2), barrier (3), oceanic (4), coral (5), and artificial (6).

The article continues that when Pangaea broke up, "some large chunks of land split. These fragments of land became islands. Greenland and Madagascar are these type of continental islands."

Referring to an image (below) of Pangaea (source: Amante, C. and Eakins, B. W. 2009), it is clear that Australia is it's own continental mass, while Greenland is a piece of a larger mass. Despite Australia historically being referred to as an island country "[because of its lack of land borders](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/B00W1WSFGQ)", it is [not an island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_island_countries). There is a nice [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Beyond_four_continents) that explains:

> Europeans discovered Australia in 1606, but for some time it was taken as part of Asia. By the late 18th century, some geographers considered it a continent in its own right, making it the sixth (or fifth for those still taking America as a single continent). In 1813, Samuel Butler wrote of Australia as "New Holland, an immense island, which some geographers dignify with the appellation of another continent" and the Oxford English Dictionary was just as equivocal some decades later. It was in the 1950s that the concept of Oceania as a "great division" of the world was replaced by the concept of Australia as a continent.

It's also important to consider that sea level has a major role in how much continental mass is "island". If you consider land bridges like the [Thule Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Land_Bridge), one could postulate that Greenland has not always been an "island".

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/aiwbE.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/aiwbE.jpg)

> **Comments:**
> **username_9**: So which of them do you say is the largest island in the world?  
> **username_13**: The one that isn't Australia ;)  
> **username_9**: So why don't you include it in your answer? The OP wants to know which of them is the largest. Knowing the type of island for each doesn't help without conclusion.  
> **username_13**: That's funny, I thought the question was "Is Australia the largest island".  I've stated that Australia is not an island.  
> **username_9**: Australia is a continetal mass consisting of several islands which one of them is the largest among all. Don't you think?  
> **username_13**: Go ahead and read the 2nd paragraph on this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_island_countries  
> **username_9**: That's just a play with words! Who on Earth believes mainland Australia is not an island? In order to be considered an island, a land mass should be surrounded by water, period.  
> **username_13**: Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/146722/discussion-between-username_13-and-username_9).  

---

