isle

1 of 2

noun

ˈī(-ə)l 

plural isles

: island

Pacific isles

Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes …

—William Shakespeare

especially : a small island : islet

I once lived on the … island of Antiparos, a tiny isle behind Paros.

—Emily Prager

Islay is a small Hebridean isle, some 25 miles in length, with a population of less than 4,000, yet it boasts eight of the oldest and most famous distilleries in Scotland.

—Henry Shukman

isle

2 of 2

verb

isled; isling

transitive verb

1

: to make an isle of

2

: to place on or as if on an isle

Synonyms of isle

Noun

• island

Examples of isle in a Sentence

Noun

the Australian seas are rife with uninhabited isles

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Fishermen found the 46-year-old woman and her 24-year-old son stranded on Balaloho Island, one of the small inhabited isles among the Selayar Islands, officials said. — Mohammad Taufan, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 2026

Exumas, Bahamas The seas surrounding this archipelago of 365 white-sand cays and idyllic isles are crystal-clear and almost impossibly blue. — Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon, Travel + Leisure, 18 July 2026

Nolan, who also wrote the screenplay, cuts between Ulysses’ trials and Telemachus’ travels through the Ionian isles to find out whether his father is still alive – a matter of some importance both to his incipient manhood and to Penelope back home. — Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 16 July 2026

Balinese, from the smaller Hindu isle, is often rawer, and features bright, exciting bursts or metallic clashes. — Steve Hochman, SPIN, 15 July 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French ile, isle, from Latin insula

First Known Use

Noun

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1590, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for isle

• aisle
• bile
• chyle
• file
• guile
• heil
• kyle
• mile
• pile
• rile
• smile
• stile

Kids Definition

isle

noun

ˈī(ə)l

: island sense 1

especially : islet

Etymology

Noun

from early French isle "isle, island," from Latin insula "island" — related to insulate, isolate, peninsula