This is a list of islands in the world ordered by area. It includes all islands with an area greater than 250,000 km² (96,526 square miles). Although an island is, in general, any land mass that is completely surrounded by water, some definitions exclude land masses large enough to be considered continents. Placing Australia in the latter category (even though arguments can be made whether it is technically a continent, or merely part of the larger continent called Australasia) makes Greenland the largest island. For the sake of classification the list of islands will begin with Greenland.