[new caledonia] sure looks like an island to me

HHS took exception to my calling New Caledonia an island: New Caledonia is an archipelago, and the main island is called "Grande Terre". New Caledonia is not as island, as your question stated. So there. To HHS: the Concise Oxford defines archipelago as: Sea with many islands, group of islands. Now for a start, no one would define New Caledonia as a sea and secondly, most know New Caledonia as an island nation, in the same way as New Zealand. That doesn't mean they don't know there are other islands scattered about and these were mentioned. Would you define Australia as an island or as an archipelago? Most would accept Indonesia as the latter but in the case of Australia and New Caledonia, the main island dominates too much to be defined other than as an island. So as stated above: sure looks like an island to me. Having said all that, I do agree with HHS's sentiments to the extent that it would have been better to have called it an island state.