isthmus

Borrowing from Latin isthmus (“a strip of land between two seas”), from Ancient Greek ῐ̓σθμός (ĭsthmós, “neck, narrow passage”), possibly from εἶμῐ (eîmĭ, “to go”). Cognate to Old Norse eið (“isthmus”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɪsθ.məs/, /ˈɪs.məs/, /ˈɪz.məs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪs.məs/
• IPA^(key): (obsolete) /ˈɪst.məs/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪsməs

isthmus (plural isthmuses or isthmi)

2. (geography) A narrow strip of land, bordered on both sides by water, and connecting two larger landmasses.

   Hyponym: Isthmus of Suez

3. (anatomy, botany) Any such narrow part connecting two larger structures.

   Hyponym: uterine isthmus

4. (graph theory) An edge in a graph whose deletion increases the number of connected components of the graph.

• Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎^[1], volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 7.736, page 225.
• “isthmus”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “isthmus”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• isthmos (unadapted)

Borrowing from Ancient Greek ῐ̓σθμός (ĭsthmós, “neck, narrow passage”), possibly from εἶμῐ (eîmĭ, “to go”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɪstʰ.mʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈist̪.mus]

isthmus m (genitive isthmī); second declension

1. a strip of land between two seas; an isthmus
   1. (transferred sense, poetic) a strait

• Capitalised as Isthmus, it refers to the Isthmus of Corinth.

Second-declension noun.

• Isthmus

• “Isthmus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

• isthmus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.