Library / English Dictionary

ARCHIPELAGO

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: archipelagoes   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A group of many islands in a large body of water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("archipelago" is a kind of...):

dry land; earth; ground; land; solid ground; terra firma (the solid part of the earth's surface)

Meronyms (members of "archipelago"):

island (a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water)

Instance hyponyms:

Greater Sunda Islands (a chain of islands including Borneo and Celebes and Java and Sumatra)

Lesser Sunda Islands; Nusa Tenggara (a chain of islands forming a province of Indonesia to the east of Java; includes Bali and Timor)

Bismarck Archipelago (a group of islands in the southwestern Pacific to the northeast of New Guinea; part of Papua New Guinea)

Admiralty Islands (a group of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago)

Isles of Scilly; Scilly Islands (an archipelago of small islands off the southwestern coast of England near the entrance to the English Channel; formerly a haven for smugglers and pirates)

Hebridean Islands; Hebridean Isles; Hebrides; Western Islands; Western Isles (a group of more than 500 islands off the western coast of Scotland)

Inner Hebrides (islands between the Outer Hebrides and the western coast of Scotland)

Outer Hebrides (a 130-mile long archipelago to the northwest of Scotland)

Japan; Japanese Archipelago; Japanese Islands (a string of more than 3,000 islands to the east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean)

Ryukyu Islands (a chain of 55 islands in the western Pacific to the to the southwest of Japan (returned by United States to Japan in 1972))

Volcano Islands (a group of Japanese Islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean to the north of the Marianas)

Frisian Islands (a chain of islands in the North Sea off the coast of northwestern Europe extending from the IJsselmeer to Jutland)

Orkney Islands (an archipelago of about 70 islands in the North Atlantic and North Sea off the northeastern coast of Scotland)

Shetland; Shetland Islands; Zetland (an archipelago of about 100 islands in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland)

Belau; Palau; Palau Islands; Pelew (a chain of more than 200 islands about 400 miles long in the western central Pacific Ocean)

Philippine Islands; Philippines (an archipelago in the southwestern Pacific including some 7000 islands)

Madeira Islands; Madeiras (a group of volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Morocco; the group forms an autonomous region of Portugal)

Society Islands (an island group of French Polynesia in the South Pacific to the east of Samoa)

Low Archipelago; Paumotu Archipelago; Tuamotu Archipelago (a group of about 80 coral islands in French Polynesia)

Austral Islands; Tubuai Islands (a chain of small islands in French Polynesia)

Gambier Islands (a group of islands in the south central Pacific; part of French Polynesia)

Iles Marquises; Marquesas Islands (a group of volcanic islands in the south central Pacific; part of French Polynesia)

Solomon Islands; Solomons (the northernmost islands are part of Papua New Guinea; the remainder form an independent state within the British Commonwealth)

Balearic Islands (an archipelago in the western Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Spain)

Alexander Archipelago (a group of islands off southeastern Alaska)

H.I.; Hawaiian Islands; Sandwich Islands (a group of volcanic and coral islands in the central Pacific)

Cape Verde Islands (a group of islands in the Atlantic off of the coast of Senegal)

Tierra del Fuego (an archipelago off southern South America; separated from the continent by the Strait of Magellan; islands are administered by Chile and by Argentina)

Comoro Islands; Iles Comores (three main islands and numerous islets in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar)

the Indies; West Indies (the string of islands between North America and South America; a popular resort area)

Antilles (a group of islands in the West Indies)

Greater Antilles (a group of islands in the western West Indies)

Caribees; Lesser Antilles (a group of islands in the southeastern West Indies)

Leeward Islands (a group of islands in the eastern West Indies)

Windward Islands; Windward Isles (a group of islands in the southeastern West Indies; the southern part of the Lesser Antilles)

Svalbard (a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean)

Lofoten (a string of islands off the northwestern coast of Norway in the Norwegian Sea)

Aaland islands; Ahvenanmaa; Aland islands (an archipelago of some 6,000 islands in the Gulf of Bothnia under Finnish control)

Arctic Archipelago (all the islands that lie to the north of mainland Canada and the Arctic Circle)

Aleutian Islands; Aleutians (an archipelago in the North Pacific extending southwest from Alaska)

Oceania; Oceanica (a large group of islands in the south Pacific including Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia (and sometimes Australasia and the Malay Archipelago))

Australasia (Australia, New Zealand, and neighboring islands in the South Pacific)

Austronesia (islands of central and South Pacific (Indonesia and Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia))

Melanesia (the islands in the southwestern part of Oceania)

Micronesia (the islands in the northwestern part of Oceania)

Ladrone Islands; Mariana Islands; Marianas (a chain of coral and volcanic islands in Micronesia (including Guam and the Northern Marianas) halfway between New Guinea and Japan; discovered by Magellan in 1521)

Caroline Islands (a long archipelago of more than 500 islands in Micronesia to the east of the Philippines)

Marshall Islands (a group of coral islands in eastern Micronesia)

Gilbert Islands (a group of islands in Micronesia to the southwest of Hawaii; formerly part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands until it became part of the Republic of Kiribati in 1979)

Ellice Islands; Tuvalu (a group of coral islands in Micronesia to the southwest of Hawaii)

Polynesia (the islands in the eastern part of Oceania)

East India; East Indies; Malay Archipelago (a group of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Asia and Australia)

Sunda Islands (a chain of islands in the western Malay Archipelago)

Derivation:

archipelagic (relating to or part of an archipelago)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The research team said they believe the immigrant bird was native to Española Island, which is located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of the Galápagos archipelago.

(Researchers report rapid formation of new bird species in Galápagos islands, Wikinews)

Part of the most remote island archipelago on Earth, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monumen is home to more than 7,000 marine species, including coral, fish, seals, turtles, whales, and several shipwrecks, and serves as the final resting place for more than 3,000 sailors and soldiers who served during World War II.

(National monument in Hawaii becomes world's largest marine protected area, NOAA)