largest continent, situated in the Eastern Hemisphere, bounded by the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, and separated from N Europe by the Ural Mountains: it includes, in addition to the nations on the land mass, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, & Indonesia: c. 17,400,000 sq mi (45,066,000 sq km); pop. c. 3,451,000,000
Origin:
L < Gr < ? Akkadian āṣū, to rise (of the sun), go out