Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A ringlike coral island and reef that nearly or entirely encloses a lagoon.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A coral island, consisting of a strip or ring of coral surrounding a central lagoon. Such islands are very common in the Pacific ocean. They often present an exceedingly picturesque appearance, a comparatively narrow strip of coral rock thinly coated with soil, and covered with a vigorous growth of cocoanut-, pandanus-, and breadfruit-trees, inclosing a large still sheet of water, usually of considerable depth, and often well supplied with fish. The circle of coral is sometimes complete, showing no apparent communication between the inclosed lagoon and the surrounding sea; but generally it is interrupted, and presents one or more openings suitable for the passage of boats.
Wiktionary
- n. A type of island consisting of a ribbon reef that nearly or entirely surrounds a lagoon and supports, in most cases, one to many islets on the reef platform. Atolls have a unique geology, so not all islands with a reef and a lagoon are atolls.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A coral island or islands, consisting of a belt of coral reef, partly submerged, surrounding a central lagoon or depression; a lagoon island.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an island consisting of a circular coral reef surrounding a lagoon
Etymologies
- From Malayalam അതൊലു (atolu, "reef") and Dhivehi އބތަލ (ab-tal), from Persian آبتل (āb-tal, "water-hillock") (Wiktionary)
- Maldivean atolu; probably akin to Sinhalese ätul, interior (from the interior lagoon), probably from Sanskrit *antala-, interior, variant of antara-. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The atoll is on admiralty charts as Hikihoho, discovered by Bougainville [Louis Antoine de Bougainville, 1729-1811, French soldier and explorer, the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the world] but called Parlay after old Parlay, a wizard with pearls who never parts with a pearl and stores hundreds of ton of shell.”
“The ring-like shape of the atoll is the result of coral reefs building up around a former volcanic island.”
“The rim of the atoll is a karst structure; there is also a quantity of exposed coral rock and extensive sand dunes and rubble to the southwest.”
“Bassas da India (Iles Eparses): the atoll is a circular reef that sits atop a long-extinct, submerged volcano”
“Inside the atoll is a large lagoon with shallows and pools 1 to 5 m deep.”
“The landing would take them down the runway away from the concentration of Russian troops; according to the satellite photo, they would have some cover at that end of the atoll from a short run of rocks.”
“Below it, the atoll was a tiny bull's eye in a huge target.”
“Bassas da India: the atoll is a circular reef that sits atop a long-extinct, submerged volcano”
“When we remember that the atoll is a living thing, an organic whole, as full of life, though not so highly organised, as a tortoise, the meanest imagination must be struck with the immensity of one of the structures.”
“The southern group consists of seven or eight islands and islets on the atoll, which is the skeleton of what some day, according to the history of coral reefs, will be a continuous island.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘atoll’.
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2042 more...
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words 2
janiform, remora, sprat, stoa, sone, lea, scow, atoll, Weltschmerz, barmy, concupiscent, actinic and 18 more...
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American Samoa
Words thereof.
samoa, south pacific, pago pago, voitogi, tutuila, ofu, manua, tau, atoll, hawaii, aunu'u, olosega and 24 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
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reginaterra's Words
purl, blow, squish, andean, generality, adaptation, lush, pack, filter, acquiesce, abstraction, sweet and 508 more...
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the earth
Planetary chaos: terrain, landscape and geology excluding rocks. (See "the geologist" list for the latter.)
butte, karst, caldera, mesa, laccolith, cwm, crater, alp, precipice, sierra, badlands, prairie and 122 more...
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Airborn
Words and phrases from Kenneth Oppel's book, Airborn.
running lights, starboard, bow, gondola, bullhorn, rudder man, gas cell, keel, catwalk, stern, cargo bay, machinist and 152 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (A)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
abalone, abbey, abundant, aconite, acorn, addled, adept, aeon, aerie, aglow, ague, aire and 99 more...
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Verbalitis
syncretic
anecdotal, phthisis, serendipitous, slapper, syncretic, sesquipedalian, hysteresis, polt, noyade, crocket, irenic, masquerade and 278 more...
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Lay of the Land
all kinds of scapes
steppe, veld, veldt, campo, llano, taiga, krummholz, elfinwood, tundra, sward, lea, heath and 197 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
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GRE uncommon
patronage, expletive, exhort, exegesis, execrable, excommunicate, evince, escarpment, ersatz, ergo, epoxy, snare and 1202 more...
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The Sea
lighthouse, opalescent, horizon, tide, froth, albatross, atoll, splash, cliff, squall, windswept, current and 1 more...
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Geographical Fun
the Earth's geographic beauty & diversity.
arroyo, atoll, badlands, barrier island, berm, box canyon, cataract, chasm, escarpment, estuary, grotto, gulch and 54 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for atoll.
fbharjo do tell (due tell)and it means "closing" and "uniting" paradoxically Mar 6, 2009
nycanthro It's the only Maldivian word in English (that I know of). Mar 6, 2009
bilby And just for the record, I'm putting dontcry in charge of the coconuts. Mar 6, 2009
bilby I'm naming my paradise island retreat No Worries Atoll. Mar 6, 2009
fbharjo What toll atoll? Mar 6, 2009