archipelago

a group of many islands in a large body of water

• Cape Verde Islands — a group of islands in the Atlantic off of the coast of Senegal
• Tierra del Fuego — an archipelago off southern South America; separated from the continent by the Strait of Magellan; islands are administered by Chile and by Argentina
• Comoro Islands, Iles Comores — three main islands and numerous islets in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar
• West Indies, the Indies — the string of islands between North and South America; a popular resort area
• Antilles — a group of islands in the West Indies
• Greater Antilles — a group of islands in the western West Indies
• Lesser Antilles, Caribees — a group of islands in the southeastern West Indies
• Leeward Islands — a group of islands in the eastern West Indies
• Windward Islands — a group of islands in the southeastern West Indies
• Svalbard — a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean
• Lofoten — a string of islands off the northwestern coast of Norway in the Norwegian Sea
• Aland islands, Aaland islands, Ahvenanmaa — an archipelago of some 6,000 islands in the Gulf of Bothnia under Finnish control
• Aleutian Islands, Aleutians — an archipelago in the North Pacific extending southwestern from Alaska
• Oceania, Oceanica — a large group of islands in the south Pacific including Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia (and sometimes Australasia and the Malay Archipelago)
• Australasia — Australia, New Zealand, and neighboring islands in the South Pacific
• Austronesia — islands of central and South Pacific (Indonesia and Melanesia and Micronesia and Polynesia)
• Melanesia — the islands in the southwestern part of Oceania
• Micronesia — the islands in the northwestern part of Oceania
• Mariana Islands, Marianas, Ladrone Islands — a chain of coral and volcanic islands in Micronesia halfway between New Guinea and Japan
• Caroline Islands — a long archipelago of more than 500 islands in Micronesia east of the Philippines
• Marshall Islands — a group of coral islands in eastern Micronesia
• Gilbert Islands — a group of islands in Micronesia southwest of Hawaii; formerly part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands until it became part of the Republic of Kiribati in 1979
• Tuvalu, Ellice Islands — a group of coral islands in Micronesia southwest of Hawaii
• Polynesia — the islands in the eastern part of Oceania
• Malay Archipelago, East Indies — a group of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Asia and Australia
• Sunda Islands — a chain of islands in the western Malay Archipelago
• Greater Sunda Islands — a chain of islands including Borneo and Celebes and Java and Sumatra
• Lesser Sunda Islands, Nusa Tenggara — a chain of islands forming a province of Indonesia east of Java; includes Bali and Timor
• Bismarck Archipelago — a group of islands in the southwestern Pacific northeast of New Guinea; part of Papua New Guinea
• Admiralty Islands — a group of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago
• Scilly Islands, Isles of Scilly — an archipelago of small islands off the southwestern coast of England near the entrance to the English Channel; formerly a haven for smugglers and pirates
• Hebrides, Hebridean Islands, Hebridean Isles, Western Islands, Western Isles — a group of more than 500 islands off the western coast of Scotland
• Inner Hebrides — islands between the Outer Hebrides and the western coast of Scotland
• Outer Hebrides — a 130-mile long archipelago northwest of Scotland
• Japan, Japanese Islands, Japanese Archipelago — a string of more than 3,000 islands east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean
• Ryukyu Islands — a chain of 55 islands in the western Pacific southwest of Japan (returned by United States to Japan in 1972)
• Orkney Islands — an archipelago of about 70 islands in the North Atlantic and North Sea off the northeastern coast of Scotland
• Shetland, Shetland Islands, Zetland — an archipelago of about 100 islands in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland
• Palau, Palau Islands, Belau, Pelew — a chain of more than 200 islands about 400 miles long in the western central Pacific Ocean
• Philippines, Philippine Islands — an archipelago in the southwestern Pacific including some 7000 islands
• Society Islands — an island group of French Polynesia in the South Pacific east of Samoa
• Tuamotu Archipelago, Paumotu Archipelago, Low Archipelago — a group of about 80 coral islands in French Polynesia
• Tubuai Islands, Austral Islands — a chain of small islands in French Polynesia
• Gambier Islands — a group of islands in the south central Pacific; part of French Polynesia
• Marquesas Islands, Iles Marquises — a group of volcanic islands in the south central Pacific; part of French Polynesia
• Solomons, Solomon Islands — the northernmost islands are part of Papua New Guinea; the remainder form an independent state within the British Commonwealth
• Balearic Islands — an archipelago in the western Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Spain
• Alexander Archipelago — a group of islands off southeastern Alaska
• Hawaiian Islands, Sandwich Islands — a group of volcanic and coral islands in the central Pacific

• land, dry land, earth, ground, solid ground, terra firma — the solid part of the earth's surface

• island — a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water