Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Part of Oceania, made up of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the islands in the southwestern part of Oceania

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek μέλας (melas, "dark") + νῆσος (nēsos, "island"), referring to the skin color of the inhabitants.

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Examples

  • He had been twenty-eight years in Melanesia, ranging from German New Guinea to the

    "Yah! Yah! Yah!" 1911

  • He had been twenty-eight years in Melanesia, ranging from German New Guinea to the German Solomons, and so thoroughly had he become identified with that portion of the world, that he habitually spoke in that bastard lingo called "bech-de-mer."

    YAH! YAH! YAH! 2010

  • All he knew of the world was steamers, far-outlying south-sea isles, and his own island of King William in Melanesia.

    CHAPTER XVI 2010

  • All he knew of the world was steamers, far-outlying south-sea isles, and his own island of King William in Melanesia.

    Chapter 16 1917

  • _ The social organization in the vast mass of islands called Melanesia [828] has not been fully investigated, but the existence of some general features has been established.

    Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV Crawford Howell Toy 1877

  • Money and Modernity: State and Local Currencies in Melanesia.

    Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

  • Genes show that people reached the Andaman islands, Melanesia and Australia, all of which required sea crossings, within a few thousand years—whereas it took them tens of thousands of years even to begin to oust our Neanderthal rivals from Europe and inland Asia.

    We Are the Apes Who Took to the Sea Matt Ridley 2011

  • Melanesia Program Director Jenny Hayward Jones says Australia needs to abandon its uncompromising stance towards its errant neighbor“I think Australia needs to reach out to some of the countries that Fiji is indeed reaching out to who have something to offer Fiji in this transition to democracy,” said Jones.

    Australia Urged to Rethink Fiji Ties 2011

  • Using the stories about Melanesia for a study of Social Darwinism and Imperialism, both key movements in his time that leave a strong influence today.

    Interview With Historian and Writer Clarice Stasz 2010

  • Pressner: Reading Maiden Voyage, a memoir by a young woman, Tania Aebi, who circumnavigates the globe by herself in a 17-foot skiff, left me with an indelible desire to explore the South Pacific's far-flung islands French Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia on a sailboat of my own.

    'The Lost Girls' of New York learn to embrace the journey 2010

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