isolation

[ ahy-suh-ley-shuhn, is-uh- ]

noun

1. an act or instance of isolating. isolating.
2. the state of being isolated. isolated.
3. the complete separation from others of a person suffering from contagious or infectious disease; quarantine.

   Synonyms: segregation

4. the separation of a nation from other nations by isolationism.
5. Psychoanalysis. a process whereby an idea or memory is divested of its emotional component.
6. Sociology. social isolation.

Other Words From

• anti-iso·lation adjective
• posti·so·lation adjective
• rei·so·lation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of isolation¹

First recorded in 1825–35; isolate + -ion

Synonym Study

See solitude.

Example Sentences

Perhaps never more than now, in this time of covid-19, do we crave isolation yet chafe at being cloistered in our homes.

From Washington Post

A babysitter took care of Sam in the family home while Castelo was in isolation, and the father and son used walkie-talkies to communicate.

From Washington Post

Whenever the mood strikes, I boil or fry them up and lessen my sense of isolation for a bit.

From Washington Post

As with other solutions to isolation—bus fare to visit a park, tickets to a museum—internet connections also require financial resources that many older adults don’t have.

From MIT Technology Review

I wanted a more autism-friendly world, but this version, defined by helplessness and isolation, has scarred me as deeply as it has my peers.

From Washington Post

“Isolation has not worked,” said Obama from the White House.

From The Daily Beast

Now that they had the isolation chamber, it was up to Phoenix to find a plane to carry it.

From The Daily Beast

He was one of six children who had been in the Ebola isolation center that had been overrun.

From The Daily Beast

Suspicion of exposure to Ebola, for example, is sufficient to justify mandatory isolation.

From The Daily Beast

A former Ebola patient calls the forcible isolation of returning health-care workers from West Africa a ‘police state approach.’

From The Daily Beast

The major-general kept him well informed of every movement of the enemy, and pointed out the dangerous isolation of Davout.

From Project Gutenberg

He experienced a feeling of such utter isolation that he almost started when Isabel spoke.

From Project Gutenberg

This practical isolation disgusted the several chiefs, who therefore agreed to open the campaign against the invaders.

From Project Gutenberg

And she was fully alive to the romantic conditions, the wild night, the isolation, the vibrating atmosphere.

From Project Gutenberg

Her long lashes brushed her cheek; she drew a kind of isolation from the way her manner underlined the office.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• confinement
• desolation
• remoteness
• segregation
• solitude