What does melanesia mean?

Definitions for melanesiaˌmɛl əˈni ʒə, -ʃə

Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word melanesia.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. Melanesia(noun)

    the islands in the southwestern part of Oceania


  1. Melanesia(ProperNoun)

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

  2. Origin: From μέλας + νῆσος, referring to the skin color of the inhabitants.


  1. Melanesia

    Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises the countries of Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea; besides these independent countries, Melanesia also includes New Caledonia, a special collectivity of France, and the region of West Papua which is the location of two provinces of Indonesia, Papua and West Papua. The name Melanesia was first used by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

  1. Melanesia


U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Melanesia



  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of melanesia in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of melanesia in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

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Translations for melanesia

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