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

Alternating every two or three chapters, Ms. Seve and the actor Caleb Teaupa unfurl a blood- and brine-soaked epic set in and around the islands of long-ago Polynesia.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

Pasifika heritage encompasses the indigenous peoples of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, with Upper Hutt-born Rennie having Cook Islands links through his mother.

From BBC • Mar. 4, 2026

When Cross was diagnosed with leukaemia aged 24, she did not immediately blame the nuclear explosions in French Polynesia decades earlier.

From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026

The team reports that inhabited islands in Western Polynesia, including Samoa and Tonga, experienced drying over time.

From Science Daily • Dec. 15, 2025

Polynesian food production depended mainly on agriculture, which was impossible at subantarctic latitudes because all Polynesian crops were tropical ones initially domesticated outside Polynesia and brought in by colonists.

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