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Glite Dictionary
Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands

9 3.3
A group of islands in the Caribbean east of Puerto Rico shared by the United States and Britain
  • proper noun
  • /ˈvɜrdʒɪn ˈaɪləndz/
translation icon : Islas Vírgenes
  • Chris Teare is the assistant head of Antilles School on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  • the U.S. Virgin Islands
  • the British Virgin Islands

He he was flying to the British Virgin Islands to meet his girlfriend.

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Examples

  • It's a US possession, like Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    Blog text (32)

  • As an unincorporated U.S. territory, the Virgin Islands do not have any electoral votes.

    Blog text (24)

  • I was in the Virgin Islands once.

    Groundhog Day (1993)

  • Although from a U.S. territory, individuals from the U.S. Virgin Islands also reported culture shock.

    Academic text (2012)

  • I shall retire to the British Virgin Islands with grace and a sense of relief.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • In high school, we traveled to the Virgin Islands to play basketball.

    Blog text (28)

  • In the British Virgin Islands, desalination provides 100 percent of the fresh water.

    Academic text (2004)

  • The more than 100,000 residents of the US Virgin Islands are American citizens.

    Blog text (24)

  • But Robert Nicholls of the University of the Virgin Islands was the vital force behind the meeting.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Many tourists visit the Virgin Islands each year to enjoy the beautiful beaches.

Surface Forms

Virgin Islands main

Morphology

Virgin + island

The term denotes an archipelago and a B1 learner who knows 'virgin' and 'island' can infer it is a group of islands described by the word 'Virgin' and thus a place name. The historical or cultural origin of 'Virgin' may be opaque, but the referential meaning (a set of islands) is compositionally clear and follows common cross-linguistic naming patterns.

Etymology

Virgin Islands got their name from Christopher Columbus. One popular story says he saw many small islands and named them for Saint Ursula and her many virgins, so the name Virgin Islands is used for that group of islands today.