HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY
To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.
Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.
THE USAGE PANEL
The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP
The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG
The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.
INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?
Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com
n. 1. Abbr. Isl. or Is. or I. A landmass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water. 2. Something resembling an island, especially in being isolated or surrounded, as: a. An unattached kitchen counter providing easy access from all sides. b. A raised curbed area, often used to delineate rows of parking spaces or lanes of traffic. c. The superstructure of a ship, especially an aircraft carrier. 3. Anatomy A cluster of cells differing in structure or function from the cells constituting the surrounding tissue. tr.v. is·land·ed, is·land·ing, is·lands To make into or as if into an island; insulate: a secluded mansion, islanded by shrubbery and fences. [Alteration (influenced by ISLE) of Middle English ilond, from Old English īegland : īg, īeg; see akw-ā- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + land, land; see lendh- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] Word History: It may seem hard to believe, but Latin aqua, "water," is related to island, which originally meant "watery land." Aqua comes almost unchanged from Indo-European *akwā-, "water." *Akwā- became *ahwō- in Germanic by Grimm's Law and other sound changes. To this was built the adjective *ahwjō-, "watery." This then became *awwjō- or *auwi-, which in pre-English became *ēaj-, and finally ēg or īeg in Old English. Island, spelled iland, first appears in Old English in King Alfred's translation of Boethius about AD 888; the spellings igland and ealond appear in contemporary documents. The s in island is due to a mistaken etymology, confusing the etymologically correct English iland with French isle. Isle comes ultimately from Latin īnsula "island," a component of paenīnsula, "almost-island," whence our peninsula. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
