Antilles

American  

[an-til-eez] / ænˈtɪl iz /

plural noun

1. a chain of islands in the West Indies, divided into two parts, the one including Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico Greater Antilles, the other including a large arch of smaller islands to the SE and S Lesser Antilles, or Caribees.

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Antilles British  

/ ænˈtɪliːz /

plural noun

1. a group of islands in the Caribbean See also Greater Antilles Lesser Antilles

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Other Word Forms

• Antillean adjective

Example Sentences

But in 2010, the Dutch dissolved the six-island territory known as the Netherlands Antilles, making Curacao a constituent nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 9, 2025

Curacao, 37 miles off the Venezuela coast, only became a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010, following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles.

From BBC • Nov. 19, 2025

More than half of the participants were from the Netherlands, with 10 percent hailing from Suriname or the Dutch Antilles and the rest identifying from nations as diverse as Turkey, Morocco and other "non-Western countries."

From Salon • Jun. 18, 2024

Bones from archaeological sites in the Turks and Caicos and from Montserrat -- an island far to the south in the Lesser Antilles -- were also determined to be from Hispaniolan parrots.

From Science Daily • Sep. 25, 2023

But most especially, my most sincere gratitude goes to our true benefactor, El Jefe Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, Champion of Education, Light of the Antilles, First Teacher, Enlightener of His People.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez