in·su·lar

(ĭn′sə-lər, ĭns′yə-)

adj.

a. Of, relating to, or constituting an island.

b. Living or located on an island.

a. Suggestive of the isolated life of an island: "He is an exceedingly insular man, so deeply private as to seem inaccessible to the scrutiny of a novelist" (Leonard Michaels).

b. Circumscribed and detached in outlook and experience; narrow or provincial.

3. Anatomy Of or relating to isolated tissue or an island of tissue.

[French insulaire, from Late Latin īnsulāris, from Latin īnsula, island.]

in′su·lar·ism, in′su·lar′i·ty (-lăr′ĭ-tē) n.

in′su·lar·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

insularism

the state of being narrow-minded.

See also: Thinking

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

insularism - the state of being isolated or detached; "the insulation of England was preserved by the English Channel"

insularity, insulation, detachment

isolation - a state of separation between persons or groups

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

And, equally, by right-wing insularism he saw around the world.

The world's oldest rebel; TRIBUTE TO LATE CAMPAIGNER HARRY LESLIE SMITH

Wildlife in a politically divided world: insularism inflates estimates of brown bear abundance.

Sharing data improves monitoring of trans-boundary populations: the case of wolverines in central Scandinavia

Previous entries--Childcare, Immigration, Queer Rights --share a common brevity and prescriptiveness, their success a function of neatly-parsed policy ideas which avoid the easy tumble into insularism. Author Jim Silver holds to that formula here, his book tight-hewn and measured, though this comes at the cost of breaking much new theoretical ground.

About Canada: Poverty

Individualism, the market economy, and a sense of uprootedness have often led to competitiveness and, ironically, insularism even in the face of a globalized world.

New landscapes, new directions for mission

"Carwyn Jones' Labour Welsh Government has stood by and watched as foreign language study has plummeted, completely ignoring the threat that insularism poses to the future of the Welsh economy."

Economy fears as students turn backs on languages

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