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Devil's Island

American

noun

one of the Safety Islands, off the coast of French Guiana: former French penal colony.

Devil's Island British

noun

French name: Île du Diable. one of the three Safety Islands, off the coast of French Guiana: formerly a leper colony, then a French penal colony from 1895 until 1938. Area: less than 2 sq km (1 sq mile)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil's Island penal colony in French Guiana and publicly stripped of his rank.

From Barron's • Nov. 18, 2025

He compared the ICC to the antisemitic conspiracy that sent Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, to the penal colony on Devil's Island for treason in 1894.

From BBC • Jun. 8, 2025

Devil’s Island in French Guiana, immortalized in the film “Papillon,” closed in 1946.

From Washington Times • Apr. 9, 2022

Five convicts escape from Devil’s Island to join the Free French bombing squadron fighting the Nazis during WWII.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 9, 2019

It certainly wasn’t coming from Dreyfus, who was then serving a life sentence on Devil’s Island, Simon’s former home.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023