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• peninsula
  peninsula

  noun

  an area of land almost completely surrounded by water except for an isthmus connecting it with the mainland.
• Peninsula
  Peninsula

  noun

  short for the Iberian Peninsula

peninsula

American  

[puh-nin-suh-luh, -nins-yuh-luh] / pəˈnɪn sə lə, -ˈnɪns jə lə /

noun

• peninsulas
  plural

1. an area of land almost completely surrounded by water except for an isthmus connecting it with the mainland.

2. the Peninsula,

   1. Spain and Portugal together; Iberian Peninsula; Iberia.

   2. a district in SE Virginia between the York and James rivers: Civil War battles.

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peninsula ¹ British  

/ pɪˈnɪnsjʊlə /

noun

1. a narrow strip of land projecting into a sea or lake from the mainland

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Peninsula ² British  

noun

1. short for the Iberian Peninsula

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peninsula Scientific  

/ pə-nĭn′syə-lə /

1. A piece of land that projects into a body of water and is connected with a larger landmass.

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peninsula Cultural  

1. A body of land enclosed on three sides by water, jutting out from a larger body of land.

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Usage

The noun peninsula is sometimes confused with the adjective peninsular: the Iberian peninsula (not peninsular )

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• peninsularism
  noun
• peninsularity
  noun
• peninsular
  adjective
• transpeninsular
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• peninsulas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of peninsula

1530–40; < Latin paenīnsula, equivalent to paen- pen- + īnsula island

Explanation

Part of Italy is a peninsula, and it's a pretty famous one, because it looks like a boot. A peninsula juts into the water but has at least a narrow a connection to land. If the boot broke off from Italy just below the "knee," it would be an island. The word peninsula, which entered English in the 16th century, comes from the Latin words paene, "almost," and insula, "island." Some confuse an island with a peninsula because both are surrounded by so much water, but a peninsula is connected to a mainland at some point, while an island is completely encircled by water. In most cases, a peninsula is narrow and long, resembling an arm or leg.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

peninsula Peninsula peninsulas

ZVERNEC, Albania—On the doorstep of a Jared Kushner-linked development site on the Adriatic Sea, a group of determined villagers set out in late May to protest barbed-wire fencing preventing their access to a coastal peninsula.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

The A855 road encircles the Trotternish peninsula in the north of the island and a diversion route is now in place.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

Polo raked across the peninsula and hopped the Gulf of California, then weakened to a tropical storm as it churned northeast into the Mexican mainland.

From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026

“I’m highly concerned,” said Matt Taylor, 55, a resident of Long Beach’s peninsula, who was out Tuesday morning helping clear the street of debris after flooding.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

It seemed that every black church on the peninsula had at least one member who worked out at Langley.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

"UNC remains committed to maintaining and enforcing the Armistice Agreement and fulfilling its responsibilities to preserve stability and prevent escalation on the Korean Peninsula," it said.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Saudi Arabia is moving more of its oil west across the Arabian Peninsula.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

When the Beverly Hills detective spotted Lavie at the restaurant without her ankle monitor, the warrant says, he reached out to officials who confirmed Lavie’s monitor was showing her location at the nearby Peninsula Hotel.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

Since the mid-19th century, remains belonging to members of the expedition have been discovered on King William Island and the Adelaide Peninsula.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026

In the afternoon, when the sun had gone over the mountains of the Peninsula to sink in the outward sea, Kino squatted in his house with Juana beside him.

From "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck

"In all these periods, the present-day islands and peninsulas of Ayvalık would have formed interior zones within an expansive terrestrial environment," explains co-author Professor Kadriye Özçelik, from Ankara University.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2025

“There’s a sequence of island peninsulas that surround the harbor with forts on all of them, and we thought that made for rich pickings as far as the nautical side of the movie.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2024

In the San Juan Islands, the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas and Whidbey Island, ferries are the link to work, school, doctor visits, weddings, funerals and loved ones.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 20, 2023

Our shoreline is vast, over 3,000 miles of it, with hundreds of peninsulas and more than 4,000 islands.

From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2023

Europe has a highly indented coastline, with five large peninsulas that approach islands in their isolation, and all of which evolved independent languages, ethnic groups, and governments: Greece, Italy, Iberia, Denmark, and Norway/Sweden.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond