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.
Ceuta has been in Spanish hands since 1580 and occupies a peninsula sticking out into the Mediterranean from the coast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Generations of Russians spent their holidays on the peninsula during the Soviet era, many of whom regard Crimea as an integral part of their country.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
French firefighters were "on the offensive" insisted commander Eric Pitault, standing in the middle of a 50-metre-wide, 25-kilometre-long firebreak cut with the help of civilian volunteers on the Cap Ferret peninsula.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
Officials evacuated the entire Cap Ferret peninsula on the south-west coast, with hundreds escaping by boat after flames swept through the popular tourist destination.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The intensity of the last few days at Langley had been matched only by the extreme heat that had enveloped the peninsula.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
Northwest of Bataan Peninsula, Dec. 14, 8 a.m.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
A life-long love affair with Gwynedd led to Bev Hooper, 67, from Yorkshire, investing in a three-bedroom property with her sister on the Llŷn Peninsula 30 years ago.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Chicxulub is the enormous impact crater buried beneath Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
Officials are debriefing after chaos broke out on the Newport Beach Peninsula Saturday, leading more than 400 arrests.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
In my flurry of nostalgic spite, I have done the Monterey Peninsula a disservice.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" 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
It is a natural fjord separating the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
“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
With mountains, many islands and peninsulas it can be a "nightmare" to get around, says Mr Roewe.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 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
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.
