isolation

isolation

See also: Isolation

English

Etymology

First attested in 1800. From French isolation, from isolé, placed on an island (thus away from other people). Equivalent to isolate +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

isolation (countable and uncountable, plural isolations)

1. (chiefly uncountable) The state of being isolated, detached, or separated; the state of being away from other people.

   She lived her final year in complete isolation, not wanting to see anybody.

2. The act of isolating.
3. (diplomacy, of a country) The state of not having diplomatic relations with other countries (either with most or all other countries, or with specified other countries).
   • 1975, W. Raymond Duncan, “Problems of Cuban Foreign Policy, chapter 20”, in Irving Louis Horowitz, editor, Cuban Communism‎, Fifth Edition edition, Transaction, published 1985, page 486:

     As of 1975, diplomatic ostracism is still imposed by the Organization of American States (OAS). The inter-American community also exercises a trade embargo against Cuba. But even within this context of hemispheric isolation, Havana’s diplomacy is strikingly contradictory.

   • September 1993, Jon Brook Wolfsthal, “The Israeli initiative”, in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists‎, volume 49, number 7, page 8:

     Israel could offer to ease North Korea’s isolation with diplomatic recognition, […] ¶ […] But Washington’s strategy of increasing North Korean isolation left no room for back-channel talks with Tel Aviv, […]

   • 2009, Dore Gold, The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West‎, Regnery Publishing, →ISBN, page 49:

     It [Europe] now pressed Washington to begin direct talks with Tehran, but Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, Rice’s point man on Iran, still stressed that diplomatic isolation of Iran—and not diplomatic engagement—was the only acceptable approach for dealing with the Iranian nuclear challenge.

4. (chemistry) The obtaining of an element from one of its compounds, or of a compound from a mixture
5. (medicine) The separation of a patient, suffering from a contagious disease, from contact with others (compare: quarantine)

   Upon returning from the field, he went into isolation for a week so as not to infect anyone with potential diseases.

6. (databases) A database property that determines when and how changes made in one transaction are visible to other concurrent transactions.
7. (psychology) A Freudian defense mechanism in which a person suppresses a harmful thought from developing into a train of thought.

Derived terms

• base isolation
• deisolation
• immunoisolation
• isolational
• isolationary
• isolationism
• isolationist
• isolationistic
• isolation pay
• isolation play
• isolation tank
• matrix isolation
• microisolation
• optoisolation
• postisolation
• preisolation
• reisolation
• self-isolation
• sound isolation

 

Related terms

• insulate
• insulation
• isolate
• isolatedness

Translations

state of being isolated

Albanian: izolim (sq) m Arabic: تَوَحُّد‎ m (tawaḥḥud) Armenian: մեկուսացում (hy) (mekusacʿum) Belarusian: ізаля́цыя f (izaljácyja) Bulgarian: изола́ция (bg) f (izolácija) Catalan: aïllament m, isolament m Chinese: Mandarin: 隔離／隔离 (zh) (gélí), 隔斷／隔断 (zh) (géduàn) Czech: izolace (cs) f Danish: isolation (da) c Dutch: isolatie (nl) f Esperanto: izoliteco Estonian: isolatsioon Finnish: eristys (fi), eristyneisyys French: isolement (fr) m Georgian: იზოლაცია (izolacia) German: Isolierung (de) f, Isolation (de) f Greek: απομόνωση (el) f (apomónosi) Hungarian: elszigetelődés, elkülönülés (hu), izoláció, elvonultság (hu), elkülönültség (hu) Ido: eskarteso (io) Irish: leithlis f Italian: isolamento (it) m Japanese: 隔離 (ja) (かくり, kakuri), 孤立 (ja) (こりつ, koritsu), 分離 (ja) (ぶんり, bunri) Khmer: ភាពឯកោ (phiəp ʼaekao) Korean: 격리(隔離) (ko) (gyeongni), 고립(孤立) (ko) (gorip), 분리(分離) (ko) (bulli) Latvian: atšķirtība f, izolācija f Lithuanian: atskyrimas m, izoliacija f Luxembourgish: Isolatioun f Macedonian: изолација f (izolacija) Maori: mohoaotanga, taratahitanga Mirandese: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: isolering m or f Persian: انزوا‎ (fa) (enzevâ) Polish: izolacja (pl) f, odosobnienie (pl) n Portuguese: isolamento m, isolação f Romanian: izolare (ro) f Russian: изоля́ция (ru) f (izoljácija), обособле́ние (ru) n (obosoblénije), затво́рничество (ru) n (zatvórničestvo) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: изола́ција f, о̏сама f Roman: izolácija (sh) f, ȍsama (sh) f Slovak: izolácia f Slovene: izolacija f Spanish: aislamiento (es) m Swedish: isolering (sv) c Turkish: izole etmek (tr) izole olmak Turkmen: izolýasiýa Ukrainian: ізоля́ція f (izoljácija)

act of isolating

Armenian: մեկուս (mekus) Bulgarian: изоли́ране (bg) n (izolírane) Catalan: isolació f Finnish: eristäminen (fi) French: isolation (fr) f, isolement (fr) m Greek: απομόνωση (el) f (apomónosi) Hungarian: elszigetelés (hu), elkülönítés (hu), izoláció Irish: leithlisiú m Malay: pengasingan, isolasi (ms) Polish: izolacja (pl) f Portuguese: isolação f, isolamento m Russian: изоля́ция (ru) f (izoljácija) Spanish: aislamiento (es) m Swedish: isolering (sv) c Turkish: izolasyon (tr)

diplomacy: state of not having diplomatic relations

Armenian: մեկ (hy) (mek) Finnish: eristyneisyys French: isolement (fr) m Italian: isolamento (it) m Khmer: ឯកោអនាថា (ʼaekao ʼaʼnaathaa) Portuguese: isolamento m Russian: изоля́ция (ru) f (izoljácija)

chemistry: separation of a component from a mixture

Bulgarian: отде́ляне (bg) n (otdéljane), изоли́ране (bg) n (izolírane) Finnish: eristäminen (fi) Greek: απονόνωση f (aponónosi) Malay: pengasingan Portuguese: isolamento m Russian: изоля́ция (ru) f (izoljácija)

medicine: separation of a patient from others

Bulgarian: каранти́на f (karantína) Finnish: eristys (fi), eristäminen (fi) French: isolement (fr) m Greek: απομόνωση (el) f (apomónosi), καραντίνα (el) f (karantína) Hungarian: elkülönítő (hu) Maori: noho taratahi Polish: izolacja (pl) f Portuguese: isolamento m Swedish: isolering (sv) c

computing: visibility of concurrent transactions

Portuguese: isolamento m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Esperanto: (please verify) izolado, (please verify) izoliteco, (please verify) izoleco German: (please verify) Isolation (de) f (1, 2) Hebrew: (please verify) בידוד‎ m (bidod) Romanian: (please verify) izolare (ro) f Serbo-Croatian: (please verify) izolacija (sh) f, (please verify) osama (sh) f, (please verify) osamljenost (sh) f

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French

Etymology

isoler +‎ -ation. Attested since 1774.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.zɔ.la.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

isolation f (plural isolations)

1. isolation; insulation

   isolation thermique ― heat insulation

   isolation phonique ― soundproofing

2. (linguistics) isolation (low number of morphemes per word on average)
3. (psychology) isolation (a Freudian defense mechanism)

Usage notes

• isolation nowadays has a connotation of physical isolation or insulation as a form of protection, chiefly of objects.
• isolement nowadays has a connotation of isolation in the sense of exclusion.
• In older texts, the two may be used more interchangeably.

Related terms

• isoler
• isolement

Further reading

• “isolation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.