Word.ws English Dictionary

Spice Islands

Spice Islands proper noun: the Moluccas or Maluku Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia comprising the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.

Proper noun

Spice Islands pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The Moluccas or Maluku Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia comprising the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.
    • Blue leagues beckoned him, the Humboldt Current helped him north along the western Patagonian shore, fair trade winds sped him westerly when he set his course for the Spice Islands.1976, Ernest Stanley Dodge, Islands and Empires: Western Impact on the Pacific and East Asia, page 3
    • There followed a remarkable period of maritime expansion by the Portuguese, who by the end of the century would establish a sea route to the Indies, rounding Africa and crossing the Indian Ocean to reach the subcontinent itself and the Spice Islands that lay beyond.1992, Edwin Williamson, The Penguin history of Latin America, London; New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 5
  2. (plural, plural-only) The Zanzibar Archipelago, in the Zanzibar semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.
    • I decided to prolong my stay in the Spice Islands until the upcoming Zanzibar Cultural Festival and International Film Festival, before heading back to Nairobi.2008, Andrew Young, Memoirs of a World Traveler, Volume 1: Journeys of a Lifetime, page 170

Examples of Spice Islands in a sentence

  • The Portuguese established trading ports at Goa, India, and Sri Lanka and moved farther east to Malacca, Malaysia, and the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) bringing back pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and mace.2006, Susheela Raghavan, Handbook of Spices, Seasonings, and Flavorings, 2nd edition, page 8:
  • Halmahera is the largest of the Spice Islands.2010, Charles Edward Miller Pearce, Frances M. Pearce, Oceanic Migration, page 4:

Origin of Spice Islands

Refers to the importance of the islands for the supply of certain important spices. Clove trees are native to the Maluku Islands, and for some centuries a monopoly of supply existed, until plants were smuggled out and cultivated in Zanzibar.

Questions about Spice Islands

What does Spice Islands mean?
Spice Islands means the Moluccas or Maluku Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia comprising the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.
How do you use Spice Islands in a sentence?
The Portuguese established trading ports at Goa, India, and Sri Lanka and moved farther east to Malacca, Malaysia, and the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) bringing back pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and mace.
What part of speech is Spice Islands?
Spice Islands is a proper noun.

Words near Spice Islands in the dictionary

  1. spice drops
  2. spice fiend
  3. spice fiends
  4. spice finch
  5. spice finches
  6. Spice Islands
  7. spice rack
  8. spice racks
  9. spice up
  10. spice-box
  11. spice-boxes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Spice Islands (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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