Islet
An islet is a small island. It is not to be confused with eyelet.
Definition of Types
Rock
A "rock", sometimes a synonym for a type of "islet", is a landform composed of rock, lying offshore, having no or minimal vegetation, and uninhabited (see Mōkōlea Rock at right).
Sandbar
An exposed sandbar is another type of islet. A more technical application is to small land features, isolated by water, lying off the shore of a larger island. And in related fashion, any emergent land on an atoll (a type of island) is also called an islet.
Size
As with many of these terms, the actual size limits of islets are subjective, and vary.
Islet of Langerhans
Islets of Langerhans are the groups of endocrine cells in the pancreas responsible, among other things, for secreting insulin.
Synonymous Terms
Look up islet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Islets are often called cays or keys in the Caribbean and West Atlantic. Rum Cay in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys off Florida are examples of islets.
- In Scotland and Ireland, they are often called inches, from the Gaelic innis, which originally meant island, but has been supplanted to refer to smaller islands. In Ireland they are often termed skerries.
- In the Channel Islands, they are often identified by the suffix -hou from the Norse -holmr.
- Holm or Holmen is a common suffix too in Nordic and northern European lands ("holme" means "islet" in Norwegian).