Polynesia

American  

[pol-uh-nee-zhuh, -shuh] / ˌpɒl əˈni ʒə, -ʃə /

noun

1. one of the three principal divisions of Oceania, comprising those island groups in the Pacific Ocean lying east of Melanesia and Micronesia and extending from the Hawaiian Islands south to New Zealand.

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Polynesia British  

/ -ʒɪə, ˌpɒlɪˈniːʒə /

noun

1. one of the three divisions of islands in the Pacific, the others being Melanesia and Micronesia: includes Samoa, Society, Marquesas, Mangareva, Tuamotu, Cook, and Tubuai Islands, and Tonga

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Polynesia Cultural  

1. Group of islands in the central and southern Pacific Ocean, including the islands of the state of Hawaii and the islands of French Polynesia. Tahiti and Samoa are in Polynesia, which means “many islands.”

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Etymology

Origin of Polynesia

C18: via French from _poly- + Greek nēsos island

Example Sentences

To reconstruct past rainfall, researchers collected sediment cores from Tahiti and Nuku Hiva in Eastern Polynesia and examined plant waxes -- fatty layers left on leaves.

From Science Daily • Dec. 15, 2025

France's high commissioner for French Polynesia said a "30-metre-high" landslide swept one house away, sending it crashing into a second.

From Barron's • Nov. 27, 2025

An ambitious novel of exploration and discovery from the author of “The Orphan Master’s Son” is set, centuries ago, among warring communities in Polynesia.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 15, 2025

In French Polynesia, officials raised predicted wave heights for Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands to 4m, with smaller waves of just under a metre expected on surrounding islands.

From BBC • Jul. 30, 2025

Eurasia and Mesoamerica developed indigenous writing, which failed to emerge in Polynesia, except perhaps on Easter Island, whose mysterious script may however have postdated the islanders’ contact with Europeans.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond