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peninsula

UK/pɪˈnɪn.sjʊ.lə/US/pɪˈnɪn.s(j)ʊ.lə/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,185 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: peninsulas

A peninsula is land surrounded by water on three sides, joined to the mainland. The Iberian peninsula, a rocky peninsula, out on the peninsula.

The Latin says it exactly — paene insula, almost an island — and that is the whole definition. Being nearly surrounded by sea gives a mild climate and a long coast to defend, which has shaped the history of Italy, Greece and Korea alike.

Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC · Public domain

Definitions of peninsula

  1. 1nounpeninsulaLand surrounded by water on three sides.C1

    “Italy is a long peninsula stretching into the Mediterranean.”

peninsula is a landform.

Where it comes from

Latin paeninsula is paene, almost, plus insula, an island. The word describes the shape precisely.

  1. Latin

    paenīnsula

  2. English, today

    peninsula

Built from

  • paene · Latin — almost
  • īnsula · Latin — island

Borrowed from Latin paenīnsula, from paene (“almost”), and īnsula (“island”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather

Practise this word

peninsula in the wild

  • The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined.

    Balkans

  • In 1910, the Empire of Japan officially annexed the Korean peninsula.

    Korea

  • The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai, is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in West Asia.

    Sinai Peninsula

  • Although the peninsula as a geographic feature extends into the state of Wisconsin, the state boundary follows the Montreal and Menominee rivers with a line connecting them.

    Upper Peninsula of Michigan

  • The peninsula is divided among three administrative regions: most belong to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the Western Greece and Attica regions.

    Peloponnese

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the paene family

peninsula

peninsula — used about once every 2,415 pages · #7,185 · point at the bar for the others