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The Americas, also known as America, are the lands of the western hemisphere, composed of numerous entities and regions variably defined by geography, politics, and culture.

Geographical and geophysical regions

• North America – the continent and associated islands of the northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere, lying northwest of South America and bounded by the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans
  • Central America – the narrow southern portion of mainland North America connecting with South America, extending from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Isthmus of Panama; alternatively, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt delimits the region on the north.
  • Caribbean – the region between southeastern North America and northern South America consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea), and the surrounding coasts. The islands – comprised of the Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas – are also known as the West Indies (or collectively known as the Antilles in some languages)
  • North America (region) - Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon and the United States.
  • Middle America - Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

• South America – the continent and associated islands of the western hemisphere and chiefly in the southern hemisphere, lying between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and southeast of North America

Geopolitical regions

• North America - Canada, the United States, Mexico (sometimes Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Bermuda are included). Also, often just the United States and Canada together.
• Central America – the southern region of North America, comprised of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
• West Indies – the island territories of the Caribbean
• South America – as above, excluding Panama

Overlapping units:

• Middle America (US) – the midwestern United States or the middle-class segment of the U.S. population

United Nations geoscheme

• Northern America – the northern region of North America comprising Canada, the United States, Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and Bermuda.
• Latin America and the Caribbean:
  • Central America - defined as all the North American countries south of the United States.
  • Caribbean
  • South America - all the countries south of Panama.

Political divisions

• United States of America – a federal republic in North America founded in 1776 and comprising 50 states and one federal district (the District of Columbia), with several outlying territories of varying affiliation; commonly referred to as America
  • Confederate States of America – a confederation in North America from 1861 to 1865, comprising eleven southern states that seceded from the United States of America: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Their secession precipitated the American Civil War; upon its conclusion, the Confederate States were reunited with the United States.
• Federal Republic of Central America – formerly the United Provinces of Central America, a federal republic in Central America from 1823 to 1840 comprising the newly independent Spanish territories: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and (later) Los Altos. In 1838, the federation succumbed to civil war and dissolved.
• West Indies Federation – a federation of several Caribbean island colonies and territories of the United Kingdom (see also: British West Indies) from 1958 to 1962. This was followed by the West Indies Associated States, a smaller, looser polity, from 1967 to 1981.

Linguistic/cultural regions

• Anglo-America – the region of the Americas having significant historical, linguistic, and cultural links to England or the British Isles, e.g., where English (a Germanic language) is officially or primarily spoken; often just Canada and the United States
• Latin America – the region of the Americas where Romance languages derived from Latin, namely Spanish and Portuguese, are officially or primarily spoken
• Ibero-America – the region of the Americas and Europe having significant historical, linguistic, and cultural links to Spain or Portugal (both on the Iberian peninsula)
  • Hispanic America - those parts of the Americas inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations

• Mesoamerica – a region of the Americas extending from central Mexico southeast to Nicaragua and Costa Rica; a term used especially in archaeology and ethnohistory for the region where an array of civilizations had flourished during the pre-Columbian era, and which shared a number of historical and cultural traditions.
  • Mesoamerican Linguistic Area – a sprachbund, or linguistic region, defined as the area inhabited by speakers of a set of indigenous languages which have developed certain similarities as a result of their historic and geographical connections; roughly co-terminate with the archaeological/ethnohistorical Mesoamerica.
• Aridoamerica – an archaeological/ethnohistorical regional division, essentially comprising the arid/semi-arid northern portion of present-day Mexico, whose historical peoples are generally characterised by a nomadic existence and minimal reliance on agriculture.
• Oasisamerica – an occasionally used archaeological/ethnohistorical term for a (pre-Columbian) cultural region of North America.

Sources

1. Nord-Amèrica, in Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana
2. North America The American Heritage Reference Collection
3. Crystal Reference Encyclopedia, "North America"
4. Burchfield, R. W., ed. 2004. "America." Fowler's Modern English Usage (ISBN 0-19-861021-1) New York: Oxford University Press, p. 48
5. McArthur, Tom. 1992."North American." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X) New York: Oxford University Press, p. 707.

• The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online. 2005. New York: Columbia University Press (proprietary; limited access).
• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. 2003. (ISBN 0-87779-809-5) New York: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
• Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 2nd ed. (rev.) 2002. (ISBN 0-19-860652-4) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings. United Nations Statistics Division, Country and Region Codes.
• What's the difference between North, Latin, Central, Middle, South, Spanish and Anglo America? Geography at about.com.

See also

• Americas
• use of the word American
• Columbia
• continent, supercontinent, subcontinent, microcontinent, and continental shelf
• region, subregion, and trade block
• geography
  • physical geography
  • political geography and geopolitics
  • human geography and regional science

• Americas
• Geography (terminology)