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Polynesia

(Encyclopedia)Polynesia pln´zh, –sh [key] [Gr.,=many islands], one of the three main divisions of Oceania, in the central and S Pacific Ocean. The larger islands are volcanic; the smaller ones are gene...

French Polynesia

(Encyclopedia)French Polynesia, officially Overseas Lands of French Polynesia, internally self-governing dependency (2015 est. pop. 278,000) of France, consisting of 118 islands in the South Pacific. The capital is...

Papeete

(Encyclopedia)Papeete päp-´t [key], town (2007 pop. 26,017), capital of Tahiti and of French Polynesia, South Pacific. A port on the NW coast of Tahiti, Papeete ships copra, vanilla, and mother-of-pearl. Th...

Ellis, William

(Encyclopedia)Ellis, William, 1794–1872, English missionary, pioneer of printing in the Pacific. Sent in 1816 to Polynesia as a nonconformist missionary, he set up at Tahiti the first printing press in the South ...

Williams, John

(Encyclopedia)Williams, John, 1796–1839, English missionary, called the Apostle of Polynesia. Under the London Missionary Society he went (1817) to the Society Islands. He discovered Rarotonga in 1823 and founded...

Atuona

(Encyclopedia)Atuona ätw´n [key] or Atuanaätwä´n [key], town, in the Marquesas Islands, South Pacific, in French Polynesia. Situated on the southern coast of the island of Hiva Oa, Atuona overlooks the B...

Hiva Oa

(Encyclopedia)Hiva Oa h´vä ´ä [key], volcanic island, 154 sq mi (399 sq km), South Pacific, second largest and the most important of the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. Hiva Oa is the seat of Atuona, f...

Makatea

(Encyclopedia)Makatea mäkät´ä [key], formerly Auroraôrôr´ [key], island, South Pacific, one of the most northwesterly of the Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia. The center of the island was once a sol...

Oceania

(Encyclopedia)Oceania shn´, –´n [key] or Oceanicashn´k [key], collective name for the approximately 25,000 islands of the Pacific, usually excluding such nontropical areas as the Ryuk...

Bora-Bora

(Encyclopedia)Bora-Bora b´rä-b´rä [key], volcanic island, 15 sq mi (39 sq km), South Pacific, in the Leeward group of the Society Islands, French Polynesia. It is a mountainous island, with Mt. Otemanu (2,3...

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