archipelago

IPA/ˌɑːkɪˈpeləɡəʊ/
KK[ˌɑrkəpˈɛləɡˌo]IPA/ˌɑːrkɪˈpeləɡəʊ/

archipelago — noun

  • archipelagosingular
  • archipelagoesplural

1. a wide area of sea that has many islands dotted across it, or the set of those i

1.nounB2
Definition

a wide area of sea that has many islands dotted across it, or the set of those islands considered as a whole

Example

The Indonesian archipelago has more than 17,000 islands spread across the ocean.

proper noun: Indonesian archipelago — named example

Hyun spent the summer exploring the small islands of the archipelago by boat.

collocation: explore the / an archipelago

Common collocations
  • remote archipelago
  • tropical archipelago
  • explore an archipelago
  • islands of the archipelago
  • archipelago nation
Synonyms
  • island chain

    more informal; emphasises islands arranged in a line

  • island group

    more general; less precise than archipelago

  • island nation

    refers to the country that occupies the archipelago, not the geographic feature itself

Usage Note

Often paired with a proper noun (e.g. Indonesian archipelago, Malay archipelago) to refer to a specific named group of islands.

Common Mistakes

Japan is an archipelago island.
Japan is an archipelago.
An archipelago already means a group of islands, so adding 'island' is redundant.
The Caribbean archipelago is a single island.
The Caribbean archipelago is made up of many islands.
An archipelago describes many islands, not just one.

Word family

  • archipelagic
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Archipelago is the most formal and precise geographic term, used in both scientific writing and travel contexts to describe any collection of islands in a body of water. Island chain is more informal and suggests a linear arrangement, like the Hawaiian Islands or the Aleutian chain. Island group is a simpler, neutral term that avoids specialised vocabulary — suitable for everyday conversation ('She visited an island group off the coast'). Island nation overlaps only when the archipelago forms a single country (e.g. Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines); it is a political label rather than a geographic one. For example, the British Isles are an archipelago, but they are not a single island nation.

archipelago ↗island chainisland groupisland nation

Common collocations

Nouns

  • archipelago nation
  • archipelago state
  • archipelago tourism

Phrases

  • islands of the archipelago
  • part of an archipelago
  • the entire archipelago

Prepositions

  • in an archipelago
  • of the archipelago
  • across the archipelago
  • throughout the archipelago

Etymology

GreekItalianEnglish

Archipelago entered English in the 16th century from Italian 'arcipelago', which originally referred specifically to the Aegean Sea. The Italian word combined Greek 'arkhi-' (chief, main) and 'pelagos' (sea), literally meaning 'the chief sea'. Over time, because the Aegean has so many islands, the word shifted from meaning 'a sea with many islands' to 'the islands themselves' — the sense we use today.

First known use

1598

1598, in the meaning defined at sense 1