1. (

• Europe

) the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles ;

2. (

• European_Union ,
• EU ,
• European_Community ,
• EC ,
• European_Economic_Community ,
• EEC ,
• Common_Market ,
• Europe

) an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members; "he tried to take Britain into the Europen Union" ;

3. (

• Europe ,

) the nations of the European continent collectively; "the Marshall Plan helped Europe recover from World War II" ;