Ellis Island

American  

noun

1. an island in upper New York Bay: a former U.S. immigrant examination station.

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Ellis Island ¹ Cultural  

1. An island in the harbor of New York City. The chief immigration station of the United States was on Ellis Island from 1892 to 1943, a time when millions of people, especially from Europe, came to the United States.

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Ellis Island ² Cultural  

1. Island in the harbor of New York City, southwest of Manhattan.

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1990 marked the opening of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

Ellis Island lies near the Statue of Liberty, which made an impressive sight for people approaching the United States for the first time.

Part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

From 1892 to 1954, it served as the prime immigration station of the country. Some twelve million immigrants passed through it during this time.

Example Sentences

At the age of five, my grandfather arrived at Ellis Island on Nov. 24, 1949, Thanksgiving Day.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 25, 2025

He has said his family, immigrants from Europe, took the name “Ellison” after Ellis Island.

From Barron's • Oct. 10, 2025

While his family endured detention at Ellis Island, Rupert reached out to contacts from their tour the previous year.

From Slate • Jan. 26, 2025

In the densely packed, mostly-immigrant community Hernandez calls “the Ellis Island of the West Coast,” a 35-acre green space serves as the “front yard and backyard” for tens of thousands of working-class residents.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 19, 2024

If those policemen at Ellis Island hadn’t taken my silkworms, I could set up a cocoonery in the backyard.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides