Pronunciation guide

How to pronounce archipelago

ar-kuh-PEL-uh-goh - five syllables, stress on 'PEL'; 'arch-' is 'ark'

US/ˌɑɹkəˈpɛləˌɡoʊ/

ɑɹkəpɛləɡoʊ

UK/ˌɑːkɪˈpɛlɪɡəʊ/

ɑːkɪpɛlɪɡəʊ

New to IPA symbols? Read the IPA guide.

Common mistake

The 'ch' is a hard 'k' ('ar-k-'), not 'ch' as in 'arch'.

What “archipelago” means

A group or chain of many islands.

A sea or stretch of water containing many islands.

In a sentence

  • The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands.
  • The archipelago of Greece includes hundreds of islands scattered in the Aegean and Ionian seas.

Say it out loud a few times, then check yourself.

Look up another wordTry a pronunciation quiz

Definitions and examples are derived from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, then edited by QuickPronounce. Pronunciation data draws on CMUdict.