isle

American  

[ahyl] / aɪl /

noun

• isles
  plural

1. a small island.

2. any island.

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verb (used with object)

isled, isling

1. to make into or as if into an isle.

2. to place on or as if on an isle.

isle British  

/ aɪl /

noun

1. an island, esp a small one: used in literature and (when cap.) in place names

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• isleless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• isles
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

isle isles isled

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 24-hour guard-gated island is home to fewer than 50 single-family homes—which occupy about three quarters of the isle, while the rest is home to a few condo buildings and hotels.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 16, 2026

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

‘Fugitives from Cair Andros have already reached us. The isle has fallen. Another army is come from the Black Gate, crossing from the north-east.’

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

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

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

At the very least, it has gorgeous shots of the sun-soaked Greek isles.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 31, 2025

Even that took a certain courage, though; he could never return to the isles.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

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

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

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

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

Related Words

• archipelago
• enclave
• islet
• peninsula
• reef