archipelago
archipelago Lexical Profile
archipelago Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An extensive group or chain of islands clustered together in a sea or ocean, or the body of water containing them.
"The Indonesian archipelago consists of more than seventeen thousand islands stretching across the equator."
A scattered collection of discrete, isolated entities, places, or communities that share a common characteristic within a larger surrounding environment.
"The metropolitan region had evolved into an archipelago of gated communities separated by sprawling commercial corridors."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Italian 'Arcipelago', the historic name for the Aegean Sea, formed from Ancient Greek 'arkhi-' (chief) and 'pelagos' (sea). Because the Aegean Sea is characterized by its numerous scattered islands, the word shifted in meaning to refer to any sea with many islands and eventually to the island group itself.