Definitions

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

  • The islands of the southern, western, and central Pacific Ocean, including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The term is sometimes extended to encompass Australia, New Zealand, and the Malay Archipelago.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • proper noun A large group of islands in the south Pacific sometimes including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago.

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

  • proper noun A geographical region composed of many islands (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) plus Australasia. It is located between Asia, Antarctica and the Americas.

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

  • noun a large group of islands in the south Pacific including Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia (and sometimes Australasia and the Malay Archipelago)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French Océanie, coined circa 1812 by geographer Conrad Malte-Brun, from the Ancient Greek Ὠκεανός (Ōkeanos, "Oceanus")

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