But I see:
* 1 mega-continent, i.e. Eurasia, which has sub-continents Europe and India tacked on
* 3 normal continents, i.e. Africa, North America, South America
* 3 "dwarf" continents, i.e. Australia, Antarctica, Zealandia
Not only are those 3 dwarf continents far smaller than the others, but one's covered with sand, another with ice, and the other with water.
- 14 or 15 major plates
- 38 small plates
Yet people will talk about 5-7 continents all the time.
Because people will be confused no matter which ill-defined definition is used, I'm switching to the botanical one [2] with 9. It seems to at least have some practical value.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_plate
[1] http://peterbird.name/publications/2003_PB2002/2003_PB2002.h...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Botanical_continents
Zealandia is just in the news because it's the latest one to have been formally called that, possibly because it's the largest one (but not enough to be in a different category) and probably also because there's an English-speaking country on it. But it's actually not especially notable.