New Guinea

American  

noun

1. a large island N of Australia, politically divided into the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya (West Irian) and the independent country of Papua New Guinea. About 316,000 sq. mi. (818,000 sq. km).

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New Guinea British  

noun

1. an island in the W Pacific, north of Australia: divided politically into Papua (formerly Irian Jaya, a province of Indonesia) in the west and Papua New Guinea in the east. There is a central chain of mountains and a lowland area of swamps in the south and along the Sepik River in the north. Area: 775 213 sq km (299 310 sq miles)

2. (until 1975) an administrative division of the former Territory of Papua and New Guinea, consisting of the NE part of the island of New Guinea together with the Bismarck Archipelago; now part of Papua New Guinea

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New Guinea Cultural  

1. Island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, north of Australia. The western half of the island is administered by Indonesia.

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New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, after Greenland.

It was named for its resemblance to the Guinea coast of western Africa.

Other Word Forms

• New Guinean adjective

Example Sentences

At that time, New Guinea and Australia were joined as a single landmass called Sahul.

From Science Daily • Apr. 9, 2026

The company has secured a 15-year bareboat charter to provide a floating storage and offloading unit in Papua New Guinea, the country’s first offshore floating facility, it notes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026

Then on the last day of shooting in Papua New Guinea the tube driver and the movie star took a walk along a remote beach.

From BBC • Jan. 18, 2026

Samoa will become the eighth country to open its mission in Jerusalem, and the third from the Pacific region after Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

From Barron's • Jan. 11, 2026

Archaeological evidence shows that the origins of New Guinea agriculture are ancient, dating to around 7000 B.C.

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