INSULAR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does insular mean? 

• INSULAR (adjective)
  The adjective INSULAR has 3 senses:

1. relating to or characteristic of or situated on an island

2. suggestive of the isolated life of an island

3. narrowly restricted in outlook or scope

  Familiarity information: INSULAR used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSULAR (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or characteristic of or situated on an island

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

Hawaii's insular culture

Pertainym:

island (a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water)

Derivation:

insularity (the state of being isolated or detached)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Suggestive of the isolated life of an island

Context example:

an exceedingly insular man; so deeply private as to seem inaccessible to the scrutiny of a novelist

Similar:

private (confined to particular persons or groups or providing privacy)

Derivation:

insularity (the state of being isolated or detached)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Narrowly restricted in outlook or scope

Synonyms:

insular; parochial

Context example:

insular attitudes toward foreigners

Similar:

provincial (characteristic of the provinces or their people)

 Context examples 

Several morphologic patterns have been identified and include insular, gyriform, trabecular, pseudosarcomatous, and solid.

(Adult Type Testicular Granulosa Cell Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)

Clinical manifestations of carcinoid syndrome occur in approximately thirty percent of patients with insular carcinoid tumor.

(Ovarian Carcinoid Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)

Branches of the middle cerebral artery supply the insular region, motor and premotor areas, and large regions of the association cortex.

(Middle Cerebral Artery, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

The neoplastic cells may form various patterns including the microfollicular, which is characterized by the presence of Call-Exner bodies, macrofollicular, insular, trabecular, and diffuse pattern.

(Adult Type Granulosa Cell Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)

They have, for example, their insular conventions which simply must be observed.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A very thin, curved lamina comprised of subcortical gray matter that is lateral to the putamen, medial to the insular cortex, and between the external and extreme capsules.

(Claustrum, NCI Thesaurus)

In contrast, deforestation in Latin America, insular South-East Asia (which include Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Timor Leste) and Madagascar derived low agricultural benefits and high environmental costs.

(Most countries lose out with forest-to-farm conversions, SciDev.Net)

During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical, as country gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Histologically, it is classified as insular, trabecular, mucinous, or stromal carcinoid.

(Ovarian Carcinoid Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)