Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Atoll |
AtollNoun1. An island consisting of a circular coral reef surrounding a lagoon. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "atoll" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1839. (references) |
Note: Atoll \A*toll"\, noun. [The native name in the Indian Ocean.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | ATOLL Acceptance, Test Or Launch Language. Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. |
Public Administration | An annular coral reef surrounding a central lagoon, which may or may not communicate with the ocean and may or may not contain a few islands within its circle. Source: European Union. (references) |
Science | A coral island consisting of a ring of coral surrounding a central lagoon. Atolls are common in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An atoll is a type of low, coral island found in the tropical ocean consisting of a coral-algal reef surrounding a central depression. The depression may be part of the emergent island or part of the sea (that is, a lagoon), or more rarely an enclosed body of fresh, brackish, or highly saline water. The term was popularised by Charles Darwin (1842, p. 2), who described atolls as a subset in a special class of islands, the unique property of which is the presesence of an organic reef. More modern definitions of atoll are those of McNeil (1954, p. 396) as "...an annular reef enclosing a lagoon in which there are no promontories other than reefs and [islets] composed of reef detritus" and Fairbridge (1950, p. 341) "...in an exclusively morphological sense, [as] ...a ring-shaped ribbon reef enclosing a lagoon in the centre."
The word atoll comes from the Divehi (Indo-Aryan language of the Maldive Islands) word atolu. Its first recorded use in English was in 1625.
Charles Darwin published an explanation for the creation of coral atolls in the South Pacific (Darwin, 1842) based upon observations made during a five-year voyage aboard the HMS Beagle (1831-1836). His explanation, which is accepted as basically correct, involved considering that several tropical island types — from high volcanic island, through barrier reef island, to atoll — represented a sequence of gradual subsidence of an original oceanic volcano. He reasoned that a fringing coral reef surrounding a volcanic island in the tropical sea will grow upwards as the island subsides (sinks), eventually becoming a barrier reef island (as typified by an island such as Bora Bora and others in the Society Islands). The fringing reef becomes a barrier reef for the reason that the outer part of the reef maintains itself near sea level through biotic growth, while the inner part of the reef falls behind, becoming a lagoon where conditions are less favorable for the calcareous algae responsible for most reef growth. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, but the barrier reef remains. At this point, the island is an atoll. Because atolls are the product of the growth of tropical marine organisms, these islands are only found in the tropical ocean. Volcanic islands located beyond the warm water temperature requirements of reef bulding (hermatypic) organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away.
R. A. Daly offered a somewhat different explanation: islands worn away by erosion (ocean waves and streams) during the last glacial stand of the sea of some 300 feet below present sea level, developed as coral islands (atolls) (or barrier reefs on a platform surrounding a volcanic island not completely worn away) as sea level gradually rose from melting of the glaciers. Discovery of the great depth of the volcanic remnant beneath many atolls, favored the Darwin explanation, although there can be little doubt that fluctuating sea level has had considerable influence on atoll and other reefs.
The distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive: they are mostly limited to the oceanic basins of the Pacific and Indian oceans. A very few atolls are found in the Atlantic.
Mode of formation
References
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Atoll."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Island | Noun: island, isle, islet, eyot, ait, holf, reef, atoll, breaker; archipelago; islander. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Atoll |
| English words defined with "atoll": Coral reefs ♦ Eniwetok ♦ Kwajalein ♦ Midway Islands. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "atoll": Acceptance, Test Or Launch Language. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Atoll" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (atoll), German (atoll), Hungarian (atoll), Swedish (atoll). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Atoll K (1950) No Buddy Atoll (1945) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Triangular atoll in the western Pacific. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Pacific atoll. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Molokini Island, a crescent atoll, is rim of volcanic crater opening to north Shore of Kahoolawe is visible in upper right. Over Alalakeiki Channel. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Photograph of a Pacific atoll taken by an astronaut. Credit: NOAA in Space. |
 | Typical atoll shoreline showing lagoon and breakers on barrier reef on ocean side. Credit: Small World. |  | Ocean side of coral atoll island showing barrier reef. Note coral rubble beach. Credit: Small World. |
 | Lagoon side of coral atoll. Credit: Small World. |  | A jewel-like Pacific atoll. Credit: Small World. |
 | Aerial view of the atoll. Credit: Small World. |  | Clipperton Island, a classic atoll. Boobie in flight and lone palm tree across lagoon of Clipperton Island. Credit: Small World. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Maldives | Because of overcrowding, the Government discourages migration to the capital island of Male or its surrounding atoll. (references) |
Economic History | Maldives | Two members from each atoll and Male are elected directly by universal suffrage. (references) |
Marshall Islands | The U.S. Department of Defense controls the use of some islands within Kwajalein atoll. (references) | |
Human Rights | Maldives | Those who are released pending trial may not leave a specific atoll. (references) |
Maldives | Punishments usually are confined to fines, compensatory payment, house arrest, imprisonment, or banishment to a remote atoll. (references) | |
Political Economy | Maldives | The administration of the atolls is carried out by the Atoll Chiefs who are appointed by the President, and the island chiefs are appointed by the Ministry of Atoll administration. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Atoll" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 72.92% of the time. "Atoll" is used about 48 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 72.92% | 35 | 58,339 |
| Noun (proper) | 27.08% | 13 | 97,576 |
| Total | 100.00% | 48 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "atoll": Johnston Atoll ♦ Palmyra Atoll. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "atoll": atoll-dweller. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "atoll"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | atol. (various references) | |
Albanian | atol. (various references) | |
Arabic | الجزيرة المرجانية الإستوائية. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | коралов остров (coral island), атол. (various references) | |
Czech | atol. (various references) | |
Danish | atol. (various references) | |
Dutch | atol. (various references) | |
Esperanto | atolo, koralinsulo. (various references) | |
Finnish | atolli, kehäriutta. (various references) | |
French | atoll. (various references) | |
German | atoll. (various references) | |
Greek | ατόλη. (various references) | |
Hebrew | אטול. (various references) | |
Hungarian | korallzátony (barrier reef, coral reef), atoll. (various references) | |
Indonesian | pulau karang. (various references) | |
Italian | atollo. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | '礁 (circular coral reef). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | か"しょう (admiration, appreciation, buffered, circular coral reef, complete victory, contemplation, encouragement, enjoyment, hot temper, interference, intervention, irascibility, irritability, letter salutation, management, meditation, observation, peevishness, praise and encouragement, sentiment, sentimentality, stimulation, taking charge). (various references) | |
Manx | ellan chorralagh (coral island). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | atollay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | atol. (various references) | |
Romanian | atol. (various references) | |
Russian | атолл. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | atol, koralno ostrvce. (various references) | |
Spanish | atolón. (various references) | |
Swedish | atoll. (various references) | |
Turkish | atol (coral island), mercanada (coral island). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | атол. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | đảo san hô vòng. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "atoll": atolls. (additional references) | |
Words containing "atoll": ayatollah, ayatollahs. (additional references) | |
| |
"Atoll" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: acol, adol, aeol, aloll, aol, Apol, apoll, Aroll, Astill, atal, Ataul, Atel, Atholle, atlo, atlotl, atoil, atol, atold, atolla, atpl, Attal, attoll, Atul, avol, awol, Azolla, batol, Dartoll, etol, etoll, etool, iatul, itol. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: allot. | |
| Words within the letters "a-l-l-o-t" | |
-1 letter: alto, lota, olla, tall, tola, toll. | |
-2 letters: all, alt, lat, lot, oat, tao. | |
-3 letters: al, at, la, lo, ta, to. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-l-l-o-t" | |
+1 letter: allots, atolls, ballot, hallot, maltol, tallol, tallow. | |
+2 letters: axolotl, ballots, challot, collate, fallout, floatel, galliot, galloot, glottal, halloth, latosol, litoral, loathly, loyalty, maillot, maltols, outfall, reallot, shallot, tallboy, tallols, tallows, tallowy, tallyho, tollage, tollbar, tollman, tollway, tonally, totally. | |
+3 letters: allocate, allopath, allotted, allottee, allotter, allotype, allotypy, antiroll, atonally, axolotls, ballonet, balloted, balloter, boatbill, challoth, clitoral, coitally, collaret, collated, collates, collator, fallouts, fellatio, fellator, flatlong, floatels, flotilla, folktale, football, footfall, footwall, galliots, gallipot, galloots, illation, latosols, littoral, loathful, lobately, lobulate, localist, localite, locality, loculate, locustal, loyalest, loyalist, maillots, martello, molality, mortally, mothball, oblately, ocellate, outfalls, postally, preallot, reallots, rostella, santalol, shallots, softball, stallion, tallboys, tallowed, tallyhos, teocalli, thalloid, thallous, tollages, tollbars, tollgate, tollways, tomalley, tortilla, totalled, trilobal, ultralow, volatile. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
