Islay

//ˈaɪlə// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Prunus ilicifolia, a traditional Native American food plant in southern California.
  2. 2
    California evergreen wild plum with spiny leathery leaves and white flowers wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute council area, Scotland.

Synonyms

All synonyms
evergreen cherryholly leaved cherryholly-leaf cherryholly-leaved cherryhollyleaf cherryprunus ilicifolia

Etymology

Etymology 1

Derived from Scottish Gaelic Ìle, but probably ultimately of non-Indo-European (substrate) origin, along with other uncertain names in Scotland such as Skye, Lewis, and Arran. The silent s in this word, as in island, is due to an unetymological association with isle.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish islay.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.