the.com/archipelago
A scatter of islands that refuses to be one place on purpose.
means A group, chain, or scattered cluster of islands, or the stretch of sea that holds them.
from From Italian 'arcipelago', originally a name for the Aegean Sea — that island-strewn water between Greece and Turkey. It joins Greek 'arkhi-' (chief, principal) with 'pelagos' (sea), so the literal sense is 'the chief sea'. Only later did the word slide from naming that one famously island-dotted body of water to meaning any such cluster of islands anywhere — the sea's contents borrowing the sea's name.
- name origin
- Once meant the Aegean Sea, not its islands
- world champ
- Indonesia hoards over 17,000 of them
- made by fire
- Many born from volcanoes punching through ocean
- shifting count
- Tides reveal and drown islands by the hour
- swedish surplus
- Stockholm fronts roughly 30,000 islands
hawaiian islands — 8 major islands in the central pacific ocean, formed by volcanic activity over a hotspot
indonesian archipelago — 17,000+ islands spanning 3,000 miles across southeast asia, world's largest by island count
caribbean islands — 7,000 islands stretching 1,500 miles from florida to venezuela