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
Like Santorini, Milos is a volcanic isle that is home to one of Greece's most unique beaches, Sarakiniko.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 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
In the new film, the duo head to the isle of Capri, where Lively’s character is about to marry a wealthy Italian businessman.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2025
No other mode of conveyance was practicable, the whole of Gloucester County, across the channel from the isle, being invested with rebellion.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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
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
In the depths of winter, Scotland's northern isles will see barely six hours of daylight from morning till night.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2025
Rays of sun dance through the valley, painting light on the plains even as the floating isles cast patches of shadows; flocks of white birds cry out in formation below us.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
You are isled from accustomed cares and worries -- you are set in a peculiar nook of rest.
From Pagan Papers by Kenneth Grahame
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
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
Tho’ all men else their nobler dreams forget, Confused by brainless mobs and lawless Powers; Thank Him who isled us here, and roughly set His Briton in blown seas and storming showers...
From Tennyson and His Friends by Various
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
