What does island mean?
Definitions for island
ˈaɪ ləndis·land
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word island.
Princeton's WordNet
islandnoun
a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water
islandnoun
a zone or area resembling an island
Wiktionary
islandnoun
A contiguous area of land, smaller than a continent, totally surrounded by water.
islandnoun
An entity surrounded by other entities that are very different from itself.
an island of tranquility (a calm place surrounded by a noisy environment)
islandnoun
A superstructure on an aircraft carrier's deck
islandverb
To surround with water; make into an island
islandverb
To set, dot (as if) with islands
islandverb
To isolate
Islandnoun
Long Island (in New York State)
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
ISLANDnoun
A tract of land surrounded by water.
Etymology: insula, Latin; isola, Italian; ealand, Erse.
He will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. ———— And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands. William Shakespeare, Tempest.
Within a long recess there lies a bay,
An island shades it from the rolling sea,
And forms a port. Dryden.Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste. Johnson.Island of bliss! amid' the subject seas. James Thomson.
Wikipedia
Island
An island or isle is any piece of subcontinental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. Sedimentary islands in the Ganges delta are called chars. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands, such as the Philippines, is referred to as an archipelago. An island may be described as such, despite the presence of an artificial land bridge; examples are Singapore and its causeway, and the various Dutch delta islands, such as IJsselmonde. Some places may even retain "island" in their names for historical reasons after being connected to a larger landmass by a land bridge or landfill, such as Coney Island and Coronado Island, though these are, strictly speaking, tied islands. Conversely, when a piece of land is separated from the mainland by a man-made canal, for example the Peloponnese by the Corinth Canal, more or less the entirety of Fennoscandia by the White Sea Canal, or Marble Hill in northern Manhattan during the time between the building of the United States Ship Canal and the filling-in of the Harlem River which surrounded the area, it is generally not considered an island. There are two main types of islands in the sea: continental and oceanic. There are also artificial islands, which are man-made.
ChatGPT
island
An island is a land mass, smaller than a continent, that is surrounded by water. It can be located in any type of water body such as a sea, ocean, lake or river. Islands can vary greatly in size, from tiny islets or keys to large landmasses like Greenland. They can be found in a wide variety of environments and host diverse ecosystems and organisms. Some are inhabited by humans while others are not.
Webster Dictionary
Islandnoun
a tract of land surrounded by water, and smaller than a continent. Cf. Continent
Islandnoun
anything regarded as resembling an island; as, an island of ice
Islandnoun
see Isle, n., 2
Islandverb
to cause to become or to resemble an island; to make an island or islands of; to isle
Islandverb
to furnish with an island or with islands; as, to island the deep
Etymology: [OE. iland, yland, AS. gland, gland, glond; g, g, island + land, lond, land. AS. g, g, is akin to AS. e water, river, OHG. uwa, G. au meadow, Icel. ey island, Dan. & Sw. , Goth. ahwa a stream, water, L. aqua water. The s is due to confusion with isle. Cf. Ait, Eyot, Ewer, Aquatic.]
Wikidata
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot, ait, or holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, e.g. the Philippines. An island may be described as such despite the presence of an artificial land bridge, for example Singapore and its causeway, or the various Dutch delta islands, such as IJsselmonde. Some places may even retain "island" in their names for historical reasons after being connected to a larger landmass by a wide land bridge, such as Coney Island. Conversely, when a piece of land is separated from the mainland by a man-made canal, for example the Peloponnese by the Corinth Canal, it is generally not considered an island. There are two main types of islands: continental islands and oceanic islands. There are also artificial islands.
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Island
ī′land, n. the smaller masses of land surrounded with water: a large floating mass.—v.t. to cause to appear like an island: to dot as with islands.—n. Islander (ī′land-ėr), an inhabitant of an island. [M. E. iland—A.S. ígland—íg, an island, and land, land; Dut. and Ger. eiland, Ice. eyland, Sw. and Dan. öland. A.S. íg is from a root which appears in Angles-ea, Aldern-ey, &c., A.S. eá, L. aqua, water, so that it originally means water-land. The s in island is due to a confusion with isle, from L. insula.]
The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz
ISLAND
A place where the bottom of the sea sticks up through the water.
Dictionary of Nautical Terms
island
May be simply described as a tract of land entirely surrounded with water; but the whole continuous land of the Old World forms one island, and the New World another; while canals across the isthmuses of Suez and Panama would make each into two. The term properly only applies to smaller portions of land; and Australia, Madagascar, Borneo, and Britain are among the larger examples. Their materials and form are equally various, and so is their origin; some having evidently been upheaved by volcanic eruption, others are the result of accretion, and still more revealing by their strata that they were formerly attached to a neighbouring land. The sudden emergence of Sabrina, in the Atlantic, has occasioned wonder in our own day. So has that of Graham's Island, near the south coast of Sicily; and the Archipelago is daily at work.
Editors Contribution
island
An area of land.
There are so many islands throughout the world.
Submitted by MaryC on February 23, 2020
islandnoun
Organized Isle informing a planned literal surface that is not consumed by fire, as opposed to the sea, the air, or the earth in a controlled way. 1.) [New Jerusalem]
Men trying to make their island just as high as the Most High but constantly fall short.
Etymology: World
Submitted by Tony_Elyon on February 27, 2024
Surnames Frequency by Census Records
ISLAND
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Island is ranked #25381 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
The Island surname appeared 975 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Island.
63.4% or 619 total occurrences were Black.
20.4% or 199 total occurrences were White.
6% or 59 total occurrences were of two or more races.
5.9% or 58 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
British National Corpus
Spoken Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'island' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1550
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'island' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3057
Nouns Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'island' in Nouns Frequency: #437
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of island in Chaldean Numerology is: 8
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of island in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5
Examples of island in a Sentence
... We've never left for a storm before. But a storm surge of 20 feet could easily wipe this island out. i'll make an evaluation tomorrow( Wednesday) afternoon. If that thing is still coming at us at about 120 mph, I may change my mind.
I want the guilt hatred hostility shame violence perfectionism biases humanity to flee, jump off the Terminal Island bridge. How many times have I laid next to you in bed with my arms around you wanting to blow my brains out? My grave marks my preference, my erasure, my wholeness.
There has not been a single democratic opening; not a single change on the island in human rights, in fact, things are worse than they were before this opening.
Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham:
International visitors are critical and especially critical in places like Kangaroo Island or tropical North Queensland and these are destinations that have relied upon a large part of their visitor market being international tourists and that's why we got to recover those markets as quickly as we can.
We're beginning to discern a... mindset on the island that the government is weighing the interest of investors against the economic interest of the island.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
References
Translations for island
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- جزيرةArabic
- ostrovCzech
- øDanish
- InselGerman
- νησίGreek
- insuloEsperanto
- islaSpanish
- جزیرهPersian
- saariFinnish
- îleFrench
- oileánIrish
- द्वीपHindi
- szigetHungarian
- կղզիArmenian
- pulauIndonesian
- isolaItalian
- אִיHebrew
- ದ್ವೀಪKannada
- 섬Korean
- insulamLatin
- eilandDutch
- øyNorwegian
- wyspaPolish
- ilhaPortuguese
- insulăRomanian
- островRussian
- oSwedish
- தீவுTamil
- ద్వీపంTelugu
- เกาะThai
- adaTurkish
- острівUkrainian
- جزیرہUrdu
- ĐảoVietnamese
- islandYiddish
- 岛Chinese
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