Cook Islands
Definition of Cook Islands
- a group of fifteen islands in the SW Pacific Ocean between Tonga and French Polynesia, which have the status of a self-governing territory in free association with New Zealand; population 11,900 (est. 2009); languages, English (official), Rarotongan (a Polynesian language); capital, Avarua, on Rarotonga.
Origin:
named after Captain James Cook (see Cook, Captain James), who visited them in 1773