Oceanian
[oh-shee-an-ee-uh, -ah-nee-uh] /ˌoʊ ʃiˈæn i ə, -ˈɑ ni ə/
noun
1.
the islands of the central and S Pacific, including Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and traditionally Australasia. About 3,450,000 sq. mi. (8,935,500 sq. km).
/ˌəʊʃɪˈɑːnɪən/
adjective
1.
of or relating to Oceania or its inhabitants
noun
2.
a native or inhabitant of Oceania
/ˌəʊʃɪˈɑːnɪə/
noun
1.
the islands of the central and S Pacific, including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia: sometimes also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago
“southern Pacific island and Australia, conceived as a continent,” 1849, Modern Latin, from French Océanie (c.1812). Apparently coined by Danish geographer Conrad Malte-Brun (1755-1826). Earlier in English as Oceanica (1832). Oceania was the name of one of the superstates in Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Oceanea, name of James Harrington’s 17c. ideal state, later was applied to the British empire.
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- Oceanic
[oh-shee-an-ik] /ˌoʊ ʃiˈæn ɪk/ adjective 1. of, living in, or produced by the : oceanic currents. 2. of or relating to the region of water lying above the bathyal, abyssal, and hadal zones of the sea bottom. Compare , . 3. immensely large; vast: an oceanic expanse of stars. 4. (initial capital letter) of or […]
- Oceanic bonito
noun See arctic bonito
- Oceanicity
[oh-shuh-nis-i-tee, oh-shee-uh-] /ˌoʊ ʃəˈnɪs ɪ ti, ˌoʊ ʃi ə-/ noun 1. the degree to which the climate of a place is influenced by the sea.
- Oceanic ridge
noun 1. any section of the narrow, largely continuous range of submarine mountains that extends into all the major oceans and at which new oceanic lithosphere is created by the rise of magma from the earth’s interior See also sea-floor spreading
- Oceanic trench
noun 1. a long narrow steep-sided depression in the earth’s oceanic crust, usually lying above a subduction zone