MOLUCCAS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Moluccas mean? 

• MOLUCCAS (noun)
  The noun MOLUCCAS has 1 sense:

1. a group of island in eastern Indonesia between Celebes and New Guinea; settled by the Portuguese but taken by the Dutch who made them the center for a spice monopoly, at which time they were known as Spice Islands

  Familiarity information: MOLUCCAS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOLUCCAS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A group of island in eastern Indonesia between Celebes and New Guinea; settled by the Portuguese but taken by the Dutch who made them the center for a spice monopoly, at which time they were known as Spice Islands

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Moluccas; Spice Islands

Instance hypernyms:

island (a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water)

Holonyms ("Moluccas" is a part of...):

Dutch East Indies; Indonesia; Republic of Indonesia (a republic in southeastern Asia on an archipelago including more than 13,000 islands; achieved independence from the Netherlands in 1945; the principal oil producer in the Far East and Pacific regions)

 Context examples 

How I had chafed and longed for the wonders of town, and yet, now that I had seen more than my wildest dreams had ever deemed possible, my eyes had rested upon nothing which was so sweet and so restful as our own little sitting-room, with its terra-cotta-coloured walls, and those trifles which are so insignificant in themselves, and yet so rich in memories—the blow-fish from the Moluccas, the narwhal’s horn from the Arctic, and the picture of the Ca Ira, with Lord Hotham in chase!

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, well, he added, looking round at the walls of the room, here are all my old curios, the same as ever: the narwhal’s horn from the Arctic, and the blowfish from the Moluccas, and the paddles from Fiji, and the picture of the Ca Ira with Lord Hotham in chase.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)