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

See Examples For:

Antilles

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

There currently are two subduction zones in the Atlantic: the Lesser Antilles and Scotia.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 15, 2024

An island of the archipelago in the South Atlantic between North and South America, enclosing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico: divided into the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Bahama Islands.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison