isolate
Americanverb (used with object)
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isolates,
present (3rd person singular)
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isolated,
past participle, past
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isolating
present participle
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to set or place apart; detach or separate so as to be alone.
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Medicine/Medical. to keep (an infected person) from contact with noninfected persons; quarantine.
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Chemistry, Bacteriology. to obtain (a substance or microorganism) in an uncombined or pure state.
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Electricity. to insulate.
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Television. to single out (a person, action, etc.) for a camera closeup.
noun
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a person, thing, or group that is set apart or isolated, as for purposes of study.
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Psychology. a person, often shy or lacking in social skills, who avoids the company of others and has no friends within a group.
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Biology. an inbreeding population that is isolated from similar populations by physiological, behavioral, or geographic barriers.
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Also called language isolate. Linguistics. a language with no demonstrable genetic relationship, as Basque.
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something that has been isolated, as a by-product in a manufacturing process.
an isolate of soy flour.
adjective
verb
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to place apart; cause to be alone
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med to quarantine (a person or animal) having or suspected of having a contagious disease
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to obtain (a compound) in an uncombined form
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to obtain pure cultures of (bacteria, esp those causing a particular disease)
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electronics to prevent interaction between (circuits, components, etc); insulate
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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isolabilitynoun
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isolatornoun
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reisolateverb (used with object)
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unisolateverb (used with object)
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isolableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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isolatesimple
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isolatessimple
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have isolatedperfect
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has isolatedperfect
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am isolatingprogressive
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are isolatingprogressive
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is isolatingprogressive
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have been isolatingperfect progressive
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has been isolatingperfect progressive
Past
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isolatedsimple
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had isolatedperfect
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was isolatingprogressive
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were isolatingprogressive
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had been isolatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of isolate
First recorded in 1800–10; back formation from isolated
Explanation
When you remove or set apart one thing from others, you isolate it. You could isolate yourself from people by living in a remote hut or, if you're a biologist, you could isolate a chromosome. The verb isolate comes from the adjective isolated, which comes from the Latin insulatas, meaning “made into an island.” You may have heard the John Donne quote, “No man is an island.” Donne was claiming that no matter how much you might try to isolate yourself from the rest of humanity, in the end people are all connected to one another. Humanity’s need for connectedness may, in fact, be illustrated by the fact that jailers frequently isolate criminals as punishment.
Vocabulary lists containing isolate
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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List 15
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Vocabulary from "Community is the 'killer app' missing from virtual reality" by Dmitri Williams
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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:
"The colleagues from Hanover and I used various methods to isolate the particles from Ukrainian soil samples and attach them to tungsten electrodes," Weissenborn explains.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2026
Aggregate figures cannot isolate Maia’s contribution, so management’s explanation of infrastructure costs and product mix will matter.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Rights group Amnesty International urged countries to "resist" the move, saying the sanctions were "designed to isolate and ultimately destroy" the court.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
We could isolate someone and keep everyone else uninfected.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The children wanted to take Paige upstairs, isolate her, and have her speak to them with the directness and the concealed softness about the chances of their father being alive.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
I tried to make the point, when I began the book, that the people who were involved with chatbots were social isolates.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2026
The team examined thousands of bacterial isolates collected from the human gut, along with large amounts of metagenomic data from people in multiple countries and across different age and health groups.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
Turning liquid whey into premium protein concentrates and isolates takes multimillion-dollar ultrafiltration systems and drying towers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
By operating as a separate entity, GenCo isolates the cost of new growth to data centers, according to NiSource.
From Barron's ● Apr. 16, 2026
A waist-high barrier isolates it from the rest of the space.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
In fact, the Kremlin swiftly dismissed the idea even as the ceasefire was under way, calling Oleshky "an isolated case" which would not affect the "settlement process" – a euphemism for the stalled peace talks.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
In its lawsuit filed in a federal court in Tennessee, the FTC joined states including Alabama, Arizona and New Jersey to allege “pervasive and systemic pricing inaccuracies, rather than isolated or accidental errors.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
The discoveries at Oued Beht indicate that the Maghreb was not isolated.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026
Police said they had arrested three suspects, but the election commission described the incident as an isolated local case.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
If the pandas are too isolated, they might be unable to find a mate or a source of food.
From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh
MarketWatch looked at isolating just the days when oil prices rose a lot to see its effect on stocks.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
For the wistful, lovelorn loner, it’s an imperative reminder that being attached at the hip can still be isolating, no matter how much two people think alike.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
For some it can be an isolating experience.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The incidents show that the AI companies need to have stronger, industrywide standards for isolating their systems during cyber testing, said Alex Stamos, chief product officer with the cybersecurity company Corridor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
I focused on isolating the data related to Castle Anorak and the forces the Sixers had positioned in and around it.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
