Laurentia

//lɑˈɹɛn.ʃə// name

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Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The craton that forms the geological core of North America, and that was a separate continent in the past (before merging into Laurasia).

    "Laurentia includes most of North America, Scotland and Ireland north of the Caledonian suture, Greenland, Spitzbergen, and the Chukotsk peninsula of eastern Siberia."

  2. 2
    Canada. nonstandard

Example

More examples

"Laurentia includes most of North America, Scotland and Ireland north of the Caledonian suture, Greenland, Spitzbergen, and the Chukotsk peninsula of eastern Siberia."

Etymology

A New Latin formation named after the Saint Lawrence River: Laurentius (“Lawrence”) + -ia (New Latin suffix for creating place names). Or, back-formed from Laurentian (from French laurentien), already in use to describe the Laurentian Mountains and their associated geologic complex (and by extension Canada as a whole).

Related phrases

north america

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.