archipelago
n. countablen. a group of islands close together in the sea. You use this word when describing a chain or cluster of islands.
n. a group of islands situated closely together in a sea or ocean.
The Philippines is a large archipelago.
The volcanic archipelago offers unique hiking trails on every island.
Navigating the complex archipelago requires careful charting, as the narrow channels between islands shift with the tides and seasonal currents.
From Italian arcipelago, formed on the basis of Ancient Greek ἀρχι- (arkhi-, “main”) + πέλαγος (pélagos, “sea”), a designation for the Aegean Sea. (Compare arch- and high seas.) The Aegean Sea is a sea with many islands; the term Arcipelago, originally a proper noun referring to the Aegean Sea, was first generalized to a common noun for any sea with many islands, and then to the islands in such a sea. By surface analysis, archi- + -pelago.