isle
/aɪ̯l/noun
isle is spelled I-S-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “aisle vs isle” about 4,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, isle means “An island, usually very small. Compare with islet” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of isle is isles.
How many letters and syllables are in isle?
| Letters | 4: I-S-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words; the 9,165th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is isle?
Isle appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce isle?
- US /aɪ̯l/
Isle has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-isle.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with isle
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: I'll, aisle (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with isle?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as isle from its last stressed vowel (/aɪl/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lies, sile.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of isle
- isles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does isle mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An island, usually very small. Compare with islet.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does isle come from?
From Middle English ile, yle (with s added, similar to English island), borrowed from Old French ille, idle, isle, from Latin insula. Not related to island. Doublet of insula.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).