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

How the sharks collect hurricane data Each year, when hurricane season draws near, NOAA teams up with the University of Delaware and other Mid-Atlantic colleges to send gliders to the continental shelf to collect crucial data. —Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 25 Aug. 2025

Other factors that impact how serious a tsunami is include the shape of the coastline and the shape and size of a continental shelf, Simmers said. —Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 30 July 2025

What To Know At her morning news conference, Sheinbaum said that Trump's decree only applies to the U.S. continental shelf and does not affect Mexico's sovereignty over the rest of the Gulf. —Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 14 Feb. 2025

Similar to above-ground canyons, they are carved into the seafloor and continental shelf through centuries of erosion. —Stephanie Edwards, Discover Magazine, 22 July 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