The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most form a long, partly volcanic island arc between the Greater Antilles to the north-west and the continent of South America. … Together, the Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles compose the Antilles (or the Caribbean in its narrowest definition).

The Caribbean island grouping known as the Lesser Antilles consists of three smaller island groups—the Windward Islands, the Leeward Islands, and the Leeward Antilles—and includes all the small islands in the Caribbean south of Puerto Rico.

The Windward Islands include Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada, while the Leeward Islands include the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Martin/Maarten, St. Barts, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, and Dominica, and the Leeward Antilles—also known as the “ABC Islands”—off the coast of South America are Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.