islay

/ˈɪzleɪ/

islay noun: prunus ilicifolia, a traditional Native American food plant in southern California.

Noun

islay (plural islays)

Prunus ilicifolia, a traditional Native American food plant in southern California.

Synonyms:

hollyleaf cherry, evergreen cherry

Proper noun capitalized: Islay

IPA/ˈaɪlə/

Islay

The southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute council area, Scotland.

Synonyms of islay

hollyleaf cherry
evergreen cherry

Forms of islay

plural	islays

Origin of islay

Borrowed from Spanish islay.

Derived from Scottish Gaelic Ìle, but probably ultimately of non-Indo-European (substrate) origin, along with other uncertain names in Scotland such as Skye, Lewis, and Arran. Watson (1926) hinted that a Proto-Brythonic/Proto-Celtic root connected to Gaulish *ilio (“flank, buttock”) or Welsh ilio (“to ferment”) might be behind the name. The silent s in this word, as in island, is due to an unetymological association with isle.

Words formed from islay

Isla

Questions about islay

What does islay mean?: Islay means prunus ilicifolia, a traditional Native American food plant in southern California.
What part of speech is islay?: Islay can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce islay?: Islay is pronounced /ˈɪzleɪ/.
What is the plural of islay?: The plural of islay is islays.

Words near islay in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: islay (page history and authors); Islay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-Islay.oga.

Cite this entry: “islay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/islay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.