an area of land almost completely surrounded by water except for an isthmus connecting it with the mainland.
the Peninsula,
Spain and Portugal together; Iberian Peninsula; Iberia.
a district in SE Virginia between the York and James rivers: Civil War battles.
The noun peninsula is sometimes confused with the adjective peninsular: the Iberian peninsula (not peninsular )
1530–40; < Latin paenīnsula, equivalent to paen- pen- + īnsula island
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“You are all set to go,” a U.S. military officer radioed as the ship glided through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and swung around the peninsula at the northern end of Oman.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
"THAAD still remains on the peninsula currently," Xavier Brunson said at a US Senate committee hearing in Washington.
From Barron's • Apr. 22, 2026
The Strait of Hormuz is the gateway to the Middle East’s vast oil wealth on the east side of the Arabian peninsula.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026
After that, hurricanes Ian, Idalia, Helene, and Milton all made landfall on the peninsula.
From Slate • Apr. 20, 2026
On the narrow peninsula they met hundreds of other raptors going north to their aeries, their nests and scrapes.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
