Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to the Caribs or Caribbees, or to the Lesser Antilles, formerly inhabited by them, comprising the eastern and southern chains of the West Indies, or to the sea between the West Indies and the mainland of America. Also spelled Carribbean.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the Caribs, to their islands (the eastern and southern West Indies), or to the sea (called the Caribbean sea) lying between those islands and Central America.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to the sea and region of the western Atlantic bounded by South America, Central America, and the islands of the West Indies (such as Cuba and Hispaniola).
  • proper noun The Caribbean Sea
  • proper noun The countries that occupy the region of the western Atlantic bounded by South America, Central America, and the islands of the West Indies (such as Cuba and Hispaniola)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun region including the Caribbean Islands
  • noun an arm of the Atlantic Ocean between North and South America; the origin of the Gulf stream

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Carib or Caribe, a tribe of Amerindians, now nearly extinct, who lived in the West Indies, + the adjective suffix -an.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Caribbean.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.