especially: a group or scattering of similar things
an archipelago of small parks within the city
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."
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebOnly accessible by foot, or boat, the isolated hamlet of Ginostra lies on a secluded flank of the volcanic isle of Stromboli, part of Sicily's Aeolian archipelago. Silvia Marchetti, CNN, 11 Aug. 2022 The textile art began in the San Blas Islands, an archipelago off the northern coast of Panama that’s part of the Guna Yala Region, where many Guna people continue to live. Jennifer Nalewicki, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Aug. 2022 The woman, who was not identified, was part of a tour group of 25 people camping at Sveasletta, in the central part of the Svalbard archipelago, which sits more than 500 miles north of the Norwegian mainland. Jan M. Olsen, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Aug. 2022 The archipelago, home to about 260 people, consists of three distinct communities: Tylerton, Rhodes Point and Ewell. Keith Demko, USA TODAY, 6 Aug. 2022 Up the coast on Taiwan’s Matsu Islands, an archipelago near mainland China, life proceeded mostly as normal, despite being only 25 miles away from one of the staging grounds for the drills.New York Times, 5 Aug. 2022 That preoccupation with water has now become critical as severe drought grips California and its Channel Islands — a rugged, eight-isle archipelago that hosts several human outposts and a handful of species that exist nowhere else on Earth.Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2022 Up the coast on Taiwan’s Matsu Islands, an archipelago near mainland China, life proceeded mostly as normal, despite being only 25 miles away from one of the staging grounds for the drills. Amy Chang Chien, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Aug. 2022 On a recent expedition to the central Pacific Ocean's Phoenix Islands archipelago onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel, Falkor, Anna Gauthier became one of the first scientists to sample deep-sea bacteria from the islands. Stephanie Stone, Scientific American, 23 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Archipelago Aegean Sea, from Italian Arcipelago, literally, chief sea, from arci- (from Latin archi-) + Greek pelagos sea — more at plagal