con ‧ tin ‧ u ‧ um /kənˈtɪnjuəm/ BrE AmE noun ( plural continuums or continua /-njuə/) [countable] formal
[ Date: 1600-1700 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: continuus ; ⇨ ↑ continuous ]
a scale of related things on which each one is only slightly different from the one before:
The Creole language is really various dialects arranged on a continuum.
All the organisms in an ecosystem are part of an evolutionary continuum.