Meanings
proper noun
- A group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves.
The Indonesian islands of Taliabu, Peleng and Batudaka are in a region named Wallacea, after Alfred Russel Wallace, the 19th-century naturalist who developed a theory of evolution alongside Charles Darwin’s.
2020 January 9, Karen Weintraub, “Trove of New Bird Species Found on Remote Indonesian Islands”, in The New York Times
Origin
From Wallace + -ia. Named after Alfred Russel Wallace; see Wallace Line.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
Wallacea. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wallacea
MLA
“Wallacea.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wallacea. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Wallacea,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Wallacea.
Source: Wallacea on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.