isolated
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of isolated
First recorded in 1755–65; equivalent to French isol(é) (from Italian; see isolato) + -ate 1 + -ed 2
Explanation
Isolated means far away from everyone or everything else. The hermit who lives on a remote island is isolated from the rest of the world, with nothing but coconuts and fish to keep him company. The word isolated comes from the Latin word insula, which means island. You don't have to be on a remote island to feel isolated, though. Even people who live in big cities can feel a sense of isolation if they don't have many friends and spend a lot of time alone. In addition to remote or set apart, isolated can mean a single event, or incident. The high school students assured their principal that the cafeteria food fight was an isolated incident, promising that it would never, ever happen again.
Vocabulary lists containing isolated
A Long Walk to Water
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Wonder Woman's Superpower Words
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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.
The cases were “too isolated and episodic” to prove a persistent civil rights violation at the Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Mass., the judge said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
And he led negotiations for China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 -- a move seen as consolidating the country's transformation from an isolated economy under Mao to the marketplace of the world.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
It should do the same for experimental sandboxes, requiring air-gapped systems—secure, isolated computer testing environments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Discoveries such as Silescelida acristata show that even isolated parts of the skeleton can reveal fundamental information about evolution.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
At Matrosskaya Tishina, about five hundred were infected, and deliberately isolated from the rest of the population.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
