‘Aisle’ and ‘isle’

It is fairly common to see isle used where aisle would be appropriate, but the different meanings are straightforward to grasp.

Aisle:

  • a passage between rows of seats or seating areas
  • a passage between rows of cabinets and shelves (containing goods)
  • a lower part in a church parallel to but divided from (by pillars) the nave or chancelIsland

Isle:

  • an island

The similarity between isle and island is a useful indicator of which word to use. If the thing you are writing about is not an island, you know that you need to use aisle.

5 thoughts on “‘Aisle’ and ‘isle’

  1. Very true. I always just chalked this up to story blindness as I like to call it. Reading over your own manuscript can be brutal for editing. The problem is you know what you’re talking about already. Small things like that are easy to miss and I do it all the time.

    Thank God for my editor haha.

    Keep up the good work.

    Like

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