atoll
9
7.8
- noun
- /əˈtɔl/
:
atolón
- Tourists often visit the atoll to enjoy the serene waters of its enclosed lagoon.
- coral atoll
- Bikini Atoll
- Midway Atoll
Those bombs were exploded out in the Marshall Islands on atolls with no one around.
- Those bombs were exploded out in the Marshall Islands on atolls with no one around.
- Look at all these little atolls that they're turning into landing strips in the South China Sea, their stated aims on Taiwan.
- One was a, an, an explosion test at Bikini Atoll.
- Radiation survey teams will be flown back to the atolls, in which time a soil and water samples will be taken.
- And then we took this trip from Majuro to a neighboring atoll hour and back again, and documented as best we could to try to understand the traditions.
Examples
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Discover if the tiny atoll of Tuvalu is really sinking from global warming.
Academic text (2009) -
- Ever heard of the Bikini atoll?
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It's part of an atoll called Tarawa Atoll.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to bring Midway Atoll back to its original ecological condition.
Academic text (1999) -
The first test of such a weapon was carried out in 1952 on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Academic text (2012) -
Recent translocation has established a second population on Midway Atoll, and its total population size is approaching 1,000 individuals.
Academic text (2012) -
Like most atolls, Clipperton originated as a fringing coral reef around a volcanic island.
Academic text (1996) -
Sikaiana is a small Polynesian atoll in the Solomon Islands located about 160 kilometers east of Malaita.
Academic text (1994) -
So you've got this atoll, which is basically the crater of an old volcano poking out of the Pacific Ocean with a few strands of beach ringing it.
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The beautiful coral reefs surrounding the atoll were teeming with colorful fish.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A piece of land completely surrounded by water smaller than a continent
Compounds
A ring of small islands in the Marshall Islands where the United States tested nuclear bombs
A ring of islands in the Marshall Islands where the US tested nuclear bombs after a WWII battle
A ring of small coral islands in the western Marshall Islands that hosts a major United States military base
A ring of small islands in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands that is the site of the Battle of Midway
How Big
Surface Forms
Etymology
Atoll comes from the Maldivian (Dhivehi) word atholhu, the local name for the ring-shaped coral islands of the Maldives. Think of a 'ring' of coral around a 'lagoon'—that image explains why an atoll means a circular group of small islands with water in the middle.