archipelago
Americannoun
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a large group or chain of islands.
the Malay Archipelago.
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any large body of water with many islands.
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the Archipelago, the Aegean Sea.
noun
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a group of islands
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a sea studded with islands
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A large group of islands.
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A sea, such as the Aegean, or an area in a sea containing a large number of scattered islands.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of archipelago
1495–1505; alteration ( archi- for arci- ) of Italian arcipelago, alteration of Egeopelago the Aegean Sea < Greek Aigaîon pélagos
Explanation
Now here's a word, archipelago, that is super-specific: it means a group of many islands. Wouldn't it be great to build your dream house in the Galapagos archipelago? It seems that archipelago came from the Italian Arciplago, the name for the Aegean Sea, which is full of many many islands. Somehow that became the word for any sea that is chock-full of islands. You can also use archipelago to indicate some other grouping that involves neither islands nor water but is similar to them. Your little sister might create an archipelago of Lego buildings on your living room carpet.
Vocabulary lists containing archipelago
Play by the Rules: Arch
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Language Gone Wrong: Words That Started Out as Errors
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Physical Geography - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Charles Post and Rachel Pohl are trading a remote Norwegian archipelago for Montana and putting their farmhouse on the market.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 7, 2026
Canouan is one of 32 islands making up the St Vincent and the Grenadines archipelago.
From BBC • Jun. 29, 2026
After visiting Madrid and Barcelona earlier in the week, the pope arrived in another island of the archipelago, Gran Canaria, on Thursday.
From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026
Land is already so scarce across the archipelago -- halfway between Australia and Hawaii -- that the international airport runway doubles as a makeshift sports field.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
With time, a few dozen regional styles developed over the 1,500-mile length of the Japanese archipelago.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
