isle

1 of 2

noun

plural isles
: island
Pacific isles
Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes …William Shakespeare
especially : a small island : islet
I once lived on the … island of Antiparos, a tiny isle behind Paros. Emily Prager
Islay is a small Hebridean isle, some 25 miles in length, with a population of less than 4,000, yet it boasts eight of the oldest and most famous distilleries in Scotland. Henry Shukman

isle

2 of 2

verb

isled; isling

transitive verb

1
: to make an isle of
2
: to place on or as if on an isle

Examples of isle in a Sentence

Noun the Australian seas are rife with uninhabited isles
Recent Examples on the Web
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Noun
The isle of Berk is an isolated, faraway land where the Vikings and dragons have been at enmity with one another for generations. Lynnette Nicholas, Parents, 12 June 2025 The daily red-eye flight lands in Dubrovnik, and the sunny isle of Hvar is just a three-hour ferry ride away. Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 10 June 2025 Various cultures have visited this Balearic isle over the centuries, including the ancient Phoenicians, who had a colony here. Pat Tompkins, AFAR Media, 9 June 2025 The nine isles are organized into three geographic clusters—east, central, and west. Jennifer Leigh Parker, Forbes.com, 6 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for isle

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French ile, isle, from Latin insula

First Known Use

Noun

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

circa 1576, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of isle was in the 13th century

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Isle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/isle. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.

Kids Definition

isle

noun
ˈī(ə)l
: island sense 1
especially : islet
Etymology

Noun

from early French isle "isle, island," from Latin insula "island" — related to insulate, isolate, peninsula

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