continental plate

noun

A large, thick, and relatively low-density slab of the Earth's solid lithosphere that carries continents and acts as part of the broken outer shell floating on the semifluid mantle.

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Meanings

nouncontinental plate (plural continental plates)

plural continental plates

  1. geographyA large, thick, and relatively low-density slab of the Earth's solid lithosphere that carries continents and acts as part of the broken outer shell floating on the semifluid mantle.

    Warping of the continental plate created fissures and fractures in the Roraima sandstone plateaus.

    1989 May, Uwe George, “Venezuela's Islands in Time”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 543
Cite this entry
APA

continental plate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/continental%20plate

MLA

“continental plate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/continental%20plate. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “continental plate,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/continental%20plate.

Source: continental plate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.