{i} self-governing island belonging to Denmark located between Iceland and the northeastern coastal islands of North America (largest island in the world)
a large island in the North Atlantic Ocean, near northeast Canada. Population: 56,352 (2001). Capital: Nuuk. Nearly all of Greenland is covered by ice, and it belongs to Denmark but has its own government. Island country, northeastern North America
the largest island in the world; between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans; a self-governing province of Denmark
Single ice cap, Greenland. Covering about 80% of the island of Greenland, it is the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere, second only to the Antarctic. It extends 1,570 mi (2,530 km) north to south, has a maximum width of 680 mi (1,094 km) near its northern margin, and an average thickness of about 5,000 ft (1,500 m). The ice sheet rises to two domes; the northern dome, reaching more than 10,000 ft (3,000 m), is its thickest and coldest point. In volume it contains 12% of the world's glacial ice. If it melted, the sea level would rise 20 ft (6 m)
() From green + land. The origin of the "green" in "Greenland" is disputed; Icelandic saga says that the island was so named by Eric the Red to make the island sound more pleasant than it was in order to lure potential settlers away from Iceland, or that it was much greener in his day; it is also said that his family came from Grønland in Norway, and that he had traveled from a poor, black-stoned field in his homeland to large green meadows in Greenland). Greenland was also called Gruntland ("Ground-land") and Engronelant (or Engroneland) on early maps. Whether green is an erroneous transcription of grunt ("ground"), which refers to shallow bays, or vice versa, is not known.