Melanesia

See also: melanesia and Melanésia

English

Etymology

From French Mélanésie (coined by Jules Dumont d'Urville), from Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas, “dark”) + νῆσος (nêsos, “island”), referring to the skin color of the inhabitants.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌmɛl.əˈniː.zi.ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌmɛl.əˈni.ʒə/
• (General American) Rhymes: -iːʒə
• Hyphenation: Mel‧a‧ne‧sia

Proper noun

Melanesia

1. A region of Oceania, made up of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji.
   • 2004, Mary N. MacDonald, “Thinking and teaching with the indigenous traditions of Melanesia”, in Beyond primitivism: indigenous religious traditions and modernity, Routledge, →ISBN, page 315:

     My job, then, is that of a cultural and religious broker of sorts, co-opting Melanesia to serve as a stimulus to thought in Le Moyne classrooms.

Holonyms

• Austronesia
• Oceania

Coordinate terms

• Micronesia
• Polynesia

Related terms

• Melanie

Translations

part of Oceania

• Afrikaans: Melanesië
• Albanian: Melanesia f
• Amharic: መላኔዥያ (mälanežya)
• Arabic: مِيلَانِيزِيَا f (mīlānīziyā)
• Armenian: Մելանեզիա (Melanezia)
• Azerbaijani: Melaneziya
• Belarusian: Мелане́зія f (Mjelanjézija), Мэланэ́зія f (Melanézija)
• Bulgarian: Мелане́зия f (Melanézija)
• Burmese: မီလန်နီးရှား (milanni:hra:)
• Catalan: Melanèsia f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 美拉尼西亞 / 美拉尼西亚 (zh) (Měilāníxīyà)

• Czech: Melanésie (cs) f
• Danish: Melanesien (da) n
• Dutch: Melanesië (nl) n
• Esperanto: Melanezio
• Estonian: Melaneesia
• Finnish: Melanesia (fi)
• French: Mélanésie (fr) f
• Georgian: მელანეზია (melanezia)
• German: Melanesien (de) n
• Greek: Μελανησία f (Melanisía)
• Hebrew: מֶלַנֶזיה f (melanézya)
• Hindi: मॅलानिशिया m (mĕlāniśiyā)
• Hungarian: Melanézia (hu)
• Icelandic: Melanesía
• Indonesian: Melenasia
• Irish: an Mheilinéis f
• Italian: Melanesia f
• Japanese: メラネシア (ja) (Meraneshia)
• Kazakh: Меланезия (kk) (Melaneziä)
• Korean: 멜라네시아 (Mellanesia)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: Melanezya

• Kyrgyz: Меланезия (Melaneziya)
• Lao: ເມລາເນຊີ (mē lā nē sī)
• Latvian: Melanēzija f
• Lithuanian: Melanezija f
• Macedonian: Меланезија f (Melanezija)
• Malay: Melanesia
• Maori: Meranihia
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: Меланези (Melanezi)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Melanesia

  Nynorsk: Melanesia

• Persian: ملانزی (fa) (melânezi)
• Polish: Melanezja (pl) f
• Portuguese: Melanésia (pt) f
• Romanian: Melanezia
• Russian: Мелане́зия (ru) f (Melanɛ́zija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Мела̀не̄зија f

  Roman: Melànēzija (sh) f

• Slovak: Melanézia f
• Slovene: Melanezija f
• Spanish: Melanesia f
• Swedish: Melanesien (sv) n
• Tagalog: Timpuluan, Melanesya
• Tajik: Меланезия (Myelaneziya)
• Tatar: Меланезия (Melaneziyä)
• Thai: เมลานีเซีย (mee-laa-nii-siia)
• Turkish: Melanezya (tr)
• Turkmen: Melaneziýa
• Ukrainian: Мелане́зія f (Melanézija)
• Urdu: میلانیشیا m (melāniśiyā)
• Uyghur: مېلانېزىيە (mëlanëziye)
• Uzbek: Melaneziya
• Vietnamese: Mê-la-nê-di
• Volapük: Bläga-Seanuäns (vo)
• Yiddish: מעלאַנעזיע n (melanezye)

Latin

Proper noun

Melānēsia f sg (genitive Melānēsiae); first declension

1. (New Latin) Melanesia (a region of Oceania)

Declension

First-declension noun, with locative, singular only.

	singular
nominative	Melānēsia
genitive	Melānēsiae
dative	Melānēsiae
accusative	Melānēsiam
ablative	Melānēsiā
vocative	Melānēsia
locative	Melānēsiae

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Ancient Greek, see English Melanesia.

Proper noun

Melanesia

1. Melanesia (a region of Oceania)

Derived terms

• melanesisk

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Ancient Greek, see English Melanesia.

Proper noun

Melanesia

1. Melanesia (a region of Oceania)

Derived terms

• melanesisk