isle
Americannoun
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isles
plural
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a small island.
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any island.
verb (used with object)
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to make into or as if into an isle.
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to place on or as if on an isle.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of isle
1250–1300; Middle English i ( s ) le < Old French < Latin īnsula
Explanation
An isle is a small island. The Isle of Capri, off the coast of Italy, is one of the most famous isles in the world. There is no clear agreement on what makes an island an isle. Some people say it's simply a matter of taste: isle sounds more poetic and romantic. Actually, there's no precise definition of island either, other than it's a piece of land surrounded by water and smaller than a continent. A good way to remember that an isle is a small island is that the word isle is smaller than island: this is a little word for a little thing.
Vocabulary lists containing isle
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.
See Examples For:
An Irish carpenter acquired the isle in Florida’s Lake Marion in the 1880s and built the main house by hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Based in the British-owned isle of Jersey, CoinShares previously traded on Nasdaq Stockholm in Sweden.
From Barron's ● Apr. 2, 2026
The two homes sit on 1.2 acres on the popular vacation isle: a 5,200-square-foot main residence and a two-bedroom guesthouse.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 17, 2025
Swona's last islanders left in 1974, but a herd of cows descended from the livestock once farmed on the isle in Orkney still survive.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2025
He alone survived, cast away on Kalypso’s isle, Ogygia.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
The contested isles are part of the volcanic Kuril archipelago, which runs in a broad arc from Russia's Kamchatka peninsula down to Japan's main northern island Hokkaido.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
But a string of helpers from the animal kingdom, including eagles, a hedgehog, a red squirrel and a flock of geese, were seen delivering the letter down the British isles.
From BBC ● May 8, 2026
Tesco has also arranged to send bananas out to Orkney's outer isles.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
Searching out the echoes of the Celtic foundation, Mr. Robb expresses the current mood of the isles and Western Europe more broadly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
They departed finally to the isles of the blessed, where they lived in perfect bliss forever.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
You are isled from accustomed cares and worries -- you are set in a peculiar nook of rest.
From Pagan Papers by Kenneth Grahame
Here Rose and Magnolia Our dearest enshrine, The prayer of the south wind Is thine and is mine, For Child and for Mother Here sweetly twice isled, Brave Seamen are praying For Mother and Child.
From Memories of Canada and Scotland — Speeches and Verses by John Douglas Sutherland Campbell
What days could ever be so long As those our pristine Summers poised O'er a charmed valley isled among Their bright slow-breaking tides unnoised?
From King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve; Laodice and Dana? by Gordon Bottomley
The aspect of the windows is nearly south, and the prospect includes the plain of the Marchfeld, with the isled Danube and Lobau in the extreme distance.
From The Dynasts by Thomas Hardy
For three days the heavens descended in a downpour that made the river a roaring torrent and isled the two log houses on their hillocks.
From The Emigrant Trail by Geraldine Bonner
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