If 米 can be used to refer to America as a country (USA), can it also refer to America as a continent?


I am currently studying this Kanji. In addition to the original meaning of
_rice_ , it also has other meanings of _meter_ (SI unit of length) and
_America_. In English and my mother tongue Indonesian, "America/Amerika" can
refer to two things: the continent, and the country (United States of
America). I have seen 米's usage in books and TV news to refer to the USA, and
I wonder if the Kanji 米 is also used to refer to the continent of America.
Thank you!




There are a few words where the 米 kanji is used to mean "America" in the
continental or regional sense, as opposed to the specific country of the
United States of America:

  * 北米【ほくべい】: North America
  * 南米【なんべい】: South America
  * 中米【ちゅうべい】: Central America
  * 中南米【ちゅうなんべい】: Central and South America (sometimes erroneously used to refer to Latin America -- erroneous, because Mexico is in North America, and is generally not included in [Central America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America))
  * 米州【べいしゅう】: the Americas -- North and South America collectively

