continental shelf

noun

: a shallow submarine plain of varying width forming a border to a continent and typically ending in a comparatively steep slope to the deep ocean floor

Illustration of continental shelf

• 1 seashore
• 2 continental shelf
• 3 continental slope
• 4 abyssal plain
• 5 seamount

Examples of continental shelf in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There is no continental shelf off the once-Golden State, so wind advocates were planning to install Washington Monument-size turbines on enormous semi-submersible platforms anchored by cables to the seafloor, 1,000 feet or more below the ocean surface. —Craig Rucker, Boston Herald, 26 Sep. 2025

The coast in Palm Beach County (which includes Jupiter!) gets a further boost due to its shape that juts out a little farther east and the fact that the continental shelf is quite narrow here. —Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 19 Sep. 2025

Russia's Arctic continental shelf contains more than 85 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 17 billion metric tons of oil, Russian state media reported in 2022. —Ellie Cook, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Aug. 2025

The United States should, therefore, instead prioritize exploring and recovering critical minerals within its own continental shelf, experts said. —Dylan Butts, CNBC, 28 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for continental shelf

• bookshelf
• herself
• himself
• hisself
• itself
• meself
• myself
• nonself
• oneself
• thyself
• yourself
• elf

Kids Definition

continental shelf

noun

: a shallow submarine plain of varying width forming a border to a continent and typically ending at the continental slope