Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Archipelago

Arˊchi-pel′a-go

,
Noun.
;
pl.
-goes
or
-gos
.
[It.
arcipelago
, properly, chief sea; Gr. pref [GREEK] + [GREEK] sea, perh. akin to [GREEK] blow, and expressing the beating of the waves. See
Plague
.]
1.
The Grecian Archipelago, or Ægean Sea, separating Greece from Asia Minor. It is studded with a vast number of small islands.
2.
Hence: Any sea or broad sheet of water interspersed with many islands or with a group of islands.

Webster 1828 Edition

Archipelago

ARCHIPEL'AGO

,
Noun.
[Authors are not agreed as to the origin of this word. Some suppose it to be compounded of Gr. chief, and sea; others of the Egean sea.]
In a general sense, a sea interspersed with many isles; but particularly the sea which separates Europe from Asia, otherwise called the Egean Sea. It contains the Grecian isles, called Cyclades and Sporades.

Definition 2024

archipelago

archipelago

English

An archipelago from above.

Noun

archipelago ‎(plural archipelagos or archipelagoes)

  1. (collective) A group of islands.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:
      For many years past the whaleship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth. She has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed.
  2. Something scattered around like an archipelago.
    The Gulag Archipelago

Translations

Related terms

Portuguese

Noun

archipelago m (plural archipelagos)

  1. Obsolete spelling of arquipélago (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).

Etymology

From Italian Arcipelago ‎(“the Chief Sea, the Aegean Sea”), from Ancient Greek ἀρχι- ‎(arkhi-, “leading”) +‎ πέλαγος ‎(pélagos, “sea”). The Aegean (the Arcipelago) is a sea with many islands; by extension, the term an Arcipelago at first referred to any sea with many islands, then to the islands themselves.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɑːkɪˈpɛləɡəʊ/
  • (Ireland) IPA(key): /ɑɹ.kɪ.pɛlˈɑ.ɡəʊ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌɑɹkəˈpɛləˌɡoʊ/
  • Hyphenation: ar‧chi‧pe‧la‧go

Similar Results