Word Study
insular
CIDE DICTIONARY
insular, a. [L. insularis, fr. insula island: cf. F. insulaire. See Isle.].
- Of or pertaining to an island; of the nature, or possessing the characteristics, of an island; as, an insular climate, fauna, etc. [1913 Webster]
- Of or pertaining to the people of an island; narrow; circumscribed; illiberal; contracted; as, insular habits, opinions, or prejudices. [1913 Webster]"The penury of insular conversation." [1913 Webster]
insular, n.
An islander. Berkeley. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
insular, adj.
1 a of or like an island. b separated or remote, like an island.
2 ignorant of or indifferent to cultures, peoples, etc., outside one's own experience; narrow-minded.
3 of a British variant of Latin handwriting current in the Middle Ages.
4 (of climate) equable.
1 a of or like an island. b separated or remote, like an island.
2 ignorant of or indifferent to cultures, peoples, etc., outside one's own experience; narrow-minded.
3 of a British variant of Latin handwriting current in the Middle Ages.
4 (of climate) equable.
Derivative
insularism n. insularity n. insularly adv.
Etymology
LL insularis (as INSULATE)
THESAURUS
insular
alien, alienated, alone, aloof, apart, archipelagian, archipelagic, asunder, authoritarian, bigot, bigoted, bipartite, borne, circumscribed, closed, companionless, confined, constricted, cramped, creedbound, deaf, deaf to reason, detached, dichotomous, disconnected, discontinuous, discrete, disjunct, disrelated, dissociated, distinct, divergent, ethnocentric, exceptional, excluding, exclusive, exclusory, exotic, extraneous, fanatical, foreign, friendless, geographically limited, hidebound, homeless, illiberal, in a backwater, in two, inadmissible, incoherent, incommensurable, incomparable, independent, insulated, irrelative, island, island-dotted, island-dweller, islanded, islander, islandish, islandlike, islandman, islandologist, islandy, islesman, isleted, isolated, kithless, limited, little, little-minded, local, localized, lone, lonely, lonesome, mean, mean-minded, mean-spirited, narrow, narrow-hearted, narrow-minded, narrow-souled, narrow-spirited, nearsighted, noncohesive, of a place, other, out-of-the-way, out-of-the-world, outlandish, parochial, partitioned, petty, preclusive, prescriptive, preventive, prohibitive, provincial, purblind, quarantined, regional, remote, removed, restricted, restrictive, retired, rootless, seagirt, secluded, seclusive, sectarian, sectional, segregate, segregated, segregative, select, selective, separate, separated, separative, shortsighted, shut off, single-handed, small, small-minded, small-town, snobbish, solitary, solo, straitlaced, strange, stuffy, topical, unabetted, unaccompanied, unaffiliated, unaided, unallied, unassisted, unassociated, unattached, unattended, uncatholic, uncharitable, unconnected, unescorted, unfrequented, ungenerous, unjoined, unliberal, unrelatable, unrelated, unseconded, unsupported, unvisited, vernacular, withdrawn, xenophobicROGET THESAURUS
insular
Irrelation
N irrelation, dissociation, misrelation, inapplicability, inconnection, multifariousness, disconnection, inconsequence, independence, incommensurability, irreconcilableness, heterogeneity, unconformity, irrelevancy, impertinence, nihil ad rem, intrusion, non-pertinence, irrelative, irrespective, unrelated, arbitrary, independent, unallied, unconnected, disconnected, adrift, isolated, insular, extraneous, strange, alien, foreign, outlandish, exotic, not comparable, incommensurable, heterogeneous, unconformable, irrelevant, inapplicable, not pertinent, not to the, purpose, impertinent, inapposite, beside the mark, a propos de bottes, aside from the purpose, away from the purpose, foreign to the purpose, beside the purpose, beside the question, beside the transaction, beside the point, misplaced, traveling out of the record, remote, far-fetched, out of the way, forced, neither here nor there, quite another thing, detached, segregate, disquiparant, multifarious, discordant, incidental, parenthetical, obiter dicta, episodic, parenthetically, by the way, by the by, en passant, incidentally, irrespectively, without reference to, without regard to, in the abstract, a se.Disjunction
N disjunction, disconnection, disunity, disunion, disassociation, disengagement, discontinuity, abjunction, cataclasm, inconnection, abstraction, abstractedness, isolation, insularity, insulation, oasis, island, separateness, severalty, disjecta membra, dispersion, apportionment, separation, parting, circumcision, detachment, segregation, divorce, sejunction, seposition, diduction, diremption, discerption, elision, caesura, break, fracture, division, subdivision, rupture, compartition, dismemberment, dislocation, luxation, severance, disseverance, scission, rescission, abscission, laceration, dilaceration, disruption, abruption, avulsion, divulsion, section, resection, cleavage, fission, partibility, separability, fissure, breach, rent, split, rift, crack, slit, incision, dissection anatomy, decomposition, cutting instrument, buzzsaw, circular saw, rip saw, separatist, disjoined, discontinuous, multipartite, abstract, disjunctive, secant, isolated, insular, separate, disparate, discrete, apart, asunder, far between, loose, free, unattached, unannexed, unassociated, unconnected, distinct, adrift, straggling, rift, reft, scissile, divisible, discerptible, partible, separable, separately, one by one, severally, apart, adrift, asunder, in twain, in the abstract, abstractedly.Unity
N unity, oneness, individuality, solitude, isolation, unification, one, unit, ace, individual, none else, no other, one, sole, single, solitary, unitary, individual, apart, alone, kithless, unaccompanied, unattended, solus, single-handed, singular, odd, unique, unrepeated, azygous, first and last, isolated, insular, monospermous, unific, uniflorous, unifoliate, unigenital, uniliteral, unijocular, unimodal, unimodular, lone, lonely, lonesome, desolate, dreary, insecable, inseverable, indiscerptible, compact, indivisible, atomic, irresolvable, singly, alone, by itself, per se, only, apart, in the singular number, in the abstract, one by one, one at a time, simply, one and a half, sesqui-, natura il fece, e poi roppe la stampa, du fort au faible, two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.Island
N island, isle, islet, eyot, ait, holf, reef, atoll, breaker, archipelago, islander, insular, seagirt, archipelagic, Fluids in Motion.For further exploring for "insular" in Webster Dictionary Online