archipelago
noun
Did you know?
The Greeks called it the Aegean Pelagos and the Italians referred to it as Arcipelago (meaning "chief sea"), but English speakers now call it the Aegean Sea. Numerous islands dot its expanse, and 16th-century English speakers adopted a modified form of its Italian name for any sea with a similar scattering of islands. In time, archipelago came to refer to the groups of islands themselves, and now it is often used figuratively, as in, for example, "an archipelago of high-rise buildings."
Examples of archipelago in a Sentence
Kathleen Wong, USA TODAY, 7 Apr. 2024
The pandemic lockdown in Japan coincided with a flurry of new hotels, especially in Kyoto, where the Park Hyatt, Aman and Four Seasons were joined by a group of independent properties and the first Ace hotel in the archipelago.
—John Wogan, New York Times, 1 Apr. 2024
The archipelago’s beauty spots feature heavily in promotional campaigns aimed at attracting more overseas visitors.
—Kathleen Magramo, CNN, 21 Mar. 2024
Shore landings will only be permitted at 43 sites across the entire archipelago.
—David Nikel, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2024
Despite some weather concerns, election officials said voting went smoothly across the more than 800,000 polling stations throughout the vast archipelago that spans thousands of islands.
—TIME, 14 Feb. 2024
Then the police stopped our boat — a reminder that government resources are always directed to limiting, rather than facilitating, the movement of people across the archipelago.
—Carina Del Valle Schorske, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024
For scuba fans, some of the best dive sites in the Ecuadorian archipelago include Wolf Island (where you'll likely spot turtles), Darwin Island, and Punta Carrión.
—Maya Kachroo-Levine, Travel + Leisure, 9 Mar. 2024
It is known to inhabit forest areas on four small islands in an archipelago of the Juruena River, in the southern Amazonia region.
—Scott Travers, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'archipelago.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near archipelago
Cite this Entry
“Archipelago.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archipelago. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
archipelago
noun
Share