archipelago

Language: en

🇺🇸 /ˌɑrkəˈpɛləˌgoʊ/

📖 Definitions

  1. noun
    A group or chain of islands clustered together in a body of water.; A sea or body of water containing many islands.; A group or collection of things that are scattered or spread out, resembling a cluster of islands.; (Historical) The Aegean Sea, originally referred to as 'the Archipelago' by medieval European writers.

🔗 Details

Word forms

countable Plural: archipelagos, archipelagoes

Collocations

island archipelagovolcanic archipelagotropical archipelagovast archipelagoscattered archipelago

Derivatives

archipelagic

Synonyms

island chainisland groupislandsisland cluster

Commonly confused

peninsula
EN: A peninsula is a landmass surrounded by water on three sides but connected to the mainland; an archipelago is a group or chain of islands.
isthmus
EN: An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger landmasses; an archipelago is a scattered group of islands.

Spelling tips

EN: Remember the 'ch' is pronounced as /k/ (not /tʃ/), and the word ends in '-ago', not '-age'. Both 'archipelagos' and 'archipelagoes' are accepted plurals.

💬 Examples

  1. The Philippines is an archipelago consisting of over 7,000 islands.

  2. The Aegean archipelago has been a crossroads of civilizations for millennia.

  3. The city's parks form an archipelago of green spaces amid the concrete.

  4. In medieval texts, the term 'the Archipelago' referred specifically to the Aegean Sea.