Society Islands

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. An island group of French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean east of Samoa. The group is made up of the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands. First visited by a Portuguese navigator in the early 17th century, the islands were claimed for France by Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1768 and named by Capt. James Cook in 1769. They became a French protectorate in 1843 and a part of the overseas territory of French Polynesia in 1946.

Wiktionary

1. n. A group of islands in the South Pacific; part of French Polynesia.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an island group of French Polynesia in the South Pacific to the east of Samoa