Australia
- 1A country in Oceania consisting of a main island, Tasmania, and smaller islands, formed historically from former British colonies; officially the Commonwealth of Australia, with its capital at Canberra.
Australia federated in 1901, uniting six British colonies under one national government.
After living abroad for a decade, she finally became a citizen of Australia.
Note
Here the name covers more ground than the island. Tasmania and the smaller islands count as Australia too, so a phrase like "Tasmania and Australia" is about geography, not politics. The country also goes by informal names: Oz, Aussie and the land down under. Terra Australis and New Holland are older, historical names for the landmass.
- 2A continent made up of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the nearby islands that share their continental shelf.
During the last ice age, low sea levels joined New Guinea and Tasmania to the rest of Australia in a single landmass.
Australia is the smallest and lowest-lying of the world's continents.
Note
A geologist's continent, drawn by the edge of a shared continental shelf rather than by coastlines or national borders. New Guinea and the islands in between belong to it as much as the mainland of the country does. When writers need that wider meaning to be unmistakable, they use Sahul or Meganesia, names that cannot be confused with the nation.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The geological continent includes the continental shelf, extending beyond present coastlines and national borders. resources.education.nsw.gov.au
- New Guinea and intervening shelf islands belong to the same continental landmass as mainland Australia. en.wikipedia.org
- Mainland Australia belongs to this continent, but the country's territory also includes remote islands beyond its continental borders. ga.gov.au
- Sahul and Meganesia distinguish the wider continent from the nation. en.wikipedia.org
- 3An island of Oceania, comprising the mainland of the country of the same name.
Ferries cross the Bass Strait between Tasmania and Australia.
Tasmania is not part of the island of Australia, even though both belong to the same country.
Note
The name began as a Latin phrase, terra australis incognita, "unknown southern land", built on auster, the south wind. The short form Australia appears in the 1693 English translation of Gabriel de Foigny's Les Aventures de Jacques Sadeur. Matthew Flinders made it stick in 1814: he found it "more agreeable to the ear" and closer to the names of the other great portions of the earth.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Australia derives from Latin terra australis incognita, meaning 'unknown southern land', ultimately from auster, 'the south wind'. en.wiktionary.org
- Australia occurs in the 1693 English translation of Gabriel de Foigny's Les Aventures de Jacques Sadeur. en.wikipedia.org
- Matthew Flinders popularised the name in 1814. en.wiktionary.org
- Flinders described Australia as 'more agreeable to the ear' and resembling the names of the other great portions of the earth. gutenberg.org
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Origin
The name goes back to the Latin phrase terra austrālis incōgnita, meaning "unknown southern land," built on auster ("the south wind"), and is first recorded in the 16th century. Matthew Flinders made it popular in 1814. Austria is a distant relative sharing its Proto-Indo-European root, but there the root kept its older meaning of "east" instead of "south."