Adjacent Words

isolation definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a state of separation between persons or groups
2: a feeling of being disliked and alone
3: the act of isolating something; setting something apart from others [syn: isolation, closing off]
4: (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which memory of an unacceptable act or impulse is separated from the emotion originally associated with it
5: a country's withdrawal from international politics; "he opposed a policy of American isolation"

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1833 the action of isolating ; the condition of being isolated Synonyms: see solitude

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the act or an instance of isolating; the state of being isolated or separated. Phrases and idioms: in isolation considered singly and not relatively. isolation hospital (or ward etc.) a hospital, ward, etc., for patients with contagious or infectious diseases.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Isolation I`so*la"tion, n. [Cf. F. isolation.] The act of isolating, or the state of being isolated; insulation; separation; loneliness. --Milman.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Isolation is the state of feeling alone and without friends or help. Many deaf people have feelings of isolation and loneliness... see also isolate 2. If something is considered in isolation from other things that it is connected with, it is considered separately, and those other things are not considered. Punishment cannot be discussed in isolation from social theory. = separately PHRASE: oft with brd-neg, PHR after v, oft PHR from n 3. If someone does something in isolation, they do it without other people being present or without their help. Malcolm works in isolation but I have no doubts about his abilities. = alone PHRASE: PHR after v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Separation, disconnection, insulation, segregation, detachment. 2. Loneliness, solitariness, solitude.

Foolish Dictionary

From Eng. ice, meaning cold, and Lat. solus, alone. Alone in the cold.

Moby Thesaurus

Jim Crow, X ray, abstraction, alien, alienation, aloneness, aloofness, anonymity, apartheid, apartness, autism, autistic thinking, avoidance mechanism, blame-shifting, blood bank, celibacy, charity ward, clinic, closed meeting, color bar, compensation, confidentiality, confidentialness, consultation room, cordon, cordon sanitaire, cordoning off, decompensation, defense mechanism, delivery room, dereism, dereistic thinking, detachment, disarticulation, disassociation, disconnectedness, disconnection, discontinuity, disengagement, disjointing, disjunction, dislocation, dispensary, displacement, dissociation, disunion, division, divorce, divorcement, emergency, emotional insulation, escape, escape into fantasy, escape mechanism, escapism, ethnocentrism, examining room, exclusiveness, executive session, fantasizing, fantasy, fever ward, flight, foreigner, hospital room, incognito, incoherence, insularity, insulation, intensive care, isolationism, keeping apart, know-nothingism, labor room, laboratory, loneliness, loneness, lonesomeness, luxation, maternity ward, moving apart, narrowness, negativism, nursery, operating room, out-group, outcast, outsider, overcompensation, parochialism, parting, partition, persona non grata, pharmacy, prison ward, privacy, private conference, private room, privatism, privatization, projection, psychotaxis, quarantine, quarantine flag, race hatred, racial segregation, rationalization, recess, reclusion, recovery room, removal, resistance, retirement, retreat, rustication, sanitary cordon, seclusion, secrecy, segmentation, segregation, semi-private room, separateness, separation, separatism, sequestration, single blessedness, snobbishness, sociological adjustive reactions, solitariness, solitude, splendid isolation, stranger, subdivision, sublimation, substitution, subtraction, surgery, therapy, tightness, treatment room, ward, wish-fulfillment fantasy, wishful thinking, withdrawal, xenophobia, yellow flag, yellow jack, zoning