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New Guinea

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noun
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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OTHER WORDS FROM New Guinea

New Guinean, adjective, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use New Guinea in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for New Guinea

New Guinea

noun
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)
Trust Territory of New Guinea (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
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for New Guinea

New Guinea

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

notes for New Guinea

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

notes for New Guinea

It was named for its resemblance to the Guinea coast of western Africa.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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