continental United States
8
2.1
- proper noun
- /ˌkɒntɪˈnɛntl juːˈnaɪtɪd steɪts/
- US
:
Estados Unidos continentales
- Age-adjusted rates computed by direct method, using the 1950 total population of the continental United States as the standard.
- population of the continental United States
- large continental United States
So we decided we were going to drive from the northern, the northernmost point in the continental United States to the southernmost point.
- So we decided we were going to drive from the northern, the northernmost point in the continental United States to the southernmost point.
Examples
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Regarding cool roofs, they are beneficial more or less throughout the continental United States.
Blog text (27) -
I want someone from Yale or Columbia or from the continental United States.
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As long as it's in the continental United States.
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And we're in the continental United States.
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But before that, he had to make contact with the continental United States.
Fiction book (1990) -
For threats against the continental United States, press 1.
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Today, the survey comprises more than 4,000 routes in the continental United States.
Academic text (2007) -
New Orleans, Louisiana, can reasonably be called the termite capital of the continental United States.
Academic text (2003) -
Samples of approximately 1,500 English-speaking subjects residing in the continental United States are drawn independently each year.
Academic text (1995) -
Many popular tourist destinations can be found in the continental United States.
Surface Forms
Morphology
continental + united + state
The meaning is compositionally built from 'continental' (of the mainland/continent) plus 'United States' (the country), so a learner who knows the constituents will infer it refers to the part of the U.S. on the North American continent. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common logic and thus immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner, though finer distinctions about Alaska/Hawaii may require extra cultural knowledge.
Etymology
Continental United States comes from the simple idea of land that is part of the continent: continental means 'on the continent', so the phrase pictures the 48 states that are next to each other on the map. Alaska does not touch the other states and Hawaii is a group of islands, so the term came to mean those 48 states, not Alaska or Hawaii.