San Juan Islands

American  

[san wahn ahy-luhndz, hwahn] / ˈsæn ˈwɑn ˈaɪ ləndz, ˈʰwɑn /

plural noun

1. a group of islands in Washington State that lie between the northwest coast of Washington and the southernmost part of Canada’s Vancouver Island.

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San Juan Islands British  

/ sæn ˈwɑːn, ˈhwɑːn /

plural noun

1. a group of islands between NW Washington, US, and SE Vancouver Island, Canada: administratively part of Washington

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Etymology

Origin of San Juan Islands

First recorded in 1865–70; originally named Isla y Archiepelago de San Juan (“Island and Archipelago of St. John”) in 1791 by Francisco de Eliza y Reventa (1759–1825), Spanish naval officer, navigator, and explorer

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

San Juan Islands

To close that gap, the team conducted years of fieldwork, including collecting living brachiopods in Washington state's San Juan Islands, where they remain relatively common.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026

When the Bergs thought about buying a vacation house, they thought it might be in the San Juan Islands or Leavenworth, Wash., a mountain town they’d been visiting every winter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026

“The San Juan Islands are beautiful. Period,” he writes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2024

It’s one of six refuges in the Washington Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Complex, along with those along the Northwest Washington coast and San Juan Islands.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 10, 2024

For a year following his graduation from high school, he rowed obsessively—up and down the channel on foggy days and on long voyages out among the San Juan Islands on sunny days.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown