a group of islands and the sea surrounding them 群岛；列岛 the Indonesian archipelago 印度尼西亚群岛
Word Originearly 16th cent.: from Italian arcipelago, from Greek arkhi- ‘chief’ + pelagos ‘sea’. The word was originally used as a proper name (the Archipelago ‘the Aegean Sea’): the general sense arose because the Aegean Sea is known for its large numbers of islands.