Melanesia

Mel·a·ne·sia  (ml-nzh, -sh)

A division of Oceania in the southwest Pacific Ocean comprising the islands northeast of Australia and south of the equator. It includes the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, the Bismarck Archipelago, various other island groups, and sometimes New Guinea.

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Melanesia [ˌmɛləˈniːzɪə]

n

(Placename) one of the three divisions of islands in the Pacific (the others being Micronesia and Polynesia); the SW division of Oceania: includes Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Louisiade, Solomon, Santa Cruz, and Loyalty Islands, which all lie northeast of Australia

[from Greek melas black + nēsos island; with reference to the dark skins of the inhabitants; on the model of Polynesia]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

Melanesia - the islands in the southwestern part of Oceania cargo cult - (Melanesia) the followers of one of several millenarian cults that believe salvation will come in the form of wealth (`cargo') brought by westerners; some ascribe divine attributes to westerners on first contact (especially to missionaries) Fiji Islands, Fijis - a group of more than 800 islands (100 inhabited) in the southwestern Pacific; larger islands (Viti Levu and Vanua Levu) are of volcanic origin surrounded by coral reefs; smaller islands are coral Oceania, Oceanica - a large group of islands in the south Pacific including Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia (and sometimes Australasia and the Malay Archipelago) Austronesia - islands of central and South Pacific (Indonesia and Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia) Bismarck Archipelago - a group of islands in the southwestern Pacific to the northeast of New Guinea; part of Papua New Guinea New Caledonia - an island to the to the east of Australia and to the north of New Zealand Solomons, Solomon Islands - the northernmost islands are part of Papua New Guinea; the remainder form an independent state within the British Commonwealth New Hebrides, Republic of Vanuatu, Vanuatu - a volcanic island republic in Melanesia; independent since 1980