Malay Archipelago

American  

noun

1. an extensive island group in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, southeast of Asia, including the Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands, the Moluccas, and the Philippines.

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Malay Archipelago British  

noun

1. a group of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, between SE Asia and Australia: the largest group of islands in the world; includes over 3000 Indonesian islands, about 7000 islands of the Philippines, and, sometimes, New Guinea

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Example Sentences

Darwin’s journey, like Wallace’s later journeys to the Malay Archipelago, included stops at several island chains, the last being the Galápagos Islands west of Ecuador.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

After relieving the Tring’s drawers of 98 cotingas, he carefully shut the cabinets to avoid arousing the suspicion of the museum staff and made his way to the birds of the Malay Archipelago.

From National Geographic • Apr. 23, 2018

Naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace delivered the first scientific accounts of their behaviours in his 1869 book The Malay Archipelago.

From Nature • Apr. 16, 2018

The process starts with surface water, propelled westward across the ocean by trade winds and heated by the sun as it travels, running into the Philippines, the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea.

From Economist • Aug. 20, 2015

In different countries the teeth are stained black, red, blue, &c., and in the Malay Archipelago it is thought shameful to have white teeth like those of a dog.

From The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex Volume II (1st Edition) by Darwin, Charles