Continental

How to spell continental

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce continental

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does continental mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or characteristic of a continent, especially mainland Europe.

Continental in a sentence

• The hotel served a light continental breakfast of pastries and coffee.

• Travellers crossing the continental landmass faced several time zones.

Where does continental come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word continental descends from the Latin verb continere, meaning 'to hold together' or 'to contain', formed from con- 'together' and tenere 'to hold'. From this came the Latin participle continens, 'holding together' or 'continuous', which by the 1500s gave English the noun 'continent' for a large continuous mass of land. The adjective continental, meaning 'of or relating to a continent', was built on that noun with the suffix -al and was in use by the 1600s. In British English it took on a specific cultural flavour, meaning 'belonging to mainland Europe' as opposed to the British Isles, hence phrases such as a continental breakfast or continental quilt. The same tenere root that underlies the silent middle of this word also gives us 'contain', 'retain', and 'tenant', which can help fix the spelling: it is contin-ent-al, with the tricky unstressed 'en' before the ending.

How the word is built

• contin- (from continere: to hold together)
• -ent (adjective ending)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)