Sea excellent back where Polynesia lies (7)
I believe the answer is:
oceania
'where polynesia lies' is the definition.
The answer is a location as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'sea excellent back' is the wordplay.
'sea' becomes 'ocean' (synonyms).
'excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'Ao', old-fashioned term for excellent).
'back' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'ai' backwards is 'ia'.
'ocean'+'ia'='OCEANIA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for oceania that I've seen before include "The Pacific islands taken together" , "Pacific Ocean area" , "Pacific group" , "part of the world" , "Large South Pacific region" .)