page_title: Islet
section_title: Other terms
hierarchical_section_title: Islet / Other terms
caption_attribution_description: Rockall
context_page_description: An islet is a very small island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation, and cannot support human habitation. They may be made of rock, sand, and/or coral, may be permanent or tidal, and may exist in the sea, rivers, or any other body of water.
context_section_description: Ait  (/eɪt/, like eight) or eyot (/aɪ(ə)t, eɪt/), a small island. It is especially used to refer to river islands found on the River Thames and its tributaries in England.
  Cay  or  key, an islet formed by the accumulation of fine sand deposits atop a reef, especially in the Caribbean and West Atlantic. Rum Cay in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys off Florida are examples of islets.
  The French suffix -hou from the Scandinavian -holm, is used for the names of some islets in the Channel Islands, such as Écréhous, Burhou, Lihou and Les Houmets, and off Normandy, such as Tatihou.
  Inch, a term used especially in Scotland, from the Gaelic innis, which originally meant island, but has been supplanted to refer to smaller islands, such the islet of Inch, off St Mary's Isle Priory, Inch Kenneth, Inchkeith, Keith Inch (no longer an island) and Inchcailloch.
  Motu, a reef islet formed by broken coral and sand, surrounding an atoll, especially in Polynesia, such as Motu One, Motu Nao and Motu Paahi.
  River island, an islet within the current of a river, such as the Île de la Cité in Paris.
  A "rock", in the sense of a type of islet, is an uninhabited landform composed of rock, lying offshore, and having at most minimal vegetation, such as Albino Rock in the Palm Island group off Queensland, Australia.
  Sandbar  or shoal, an exposed sandbar.
  Sea stack, a thin, vertical landform jutting out of a body of water.
  Skerry, a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation, especially in Ireland.
  Subsidiary islets, a more technical application, is applied to small land features isolated by water, lying off the shore of a larger island. Similarly, any emergent land in an atoll is also called an islet.
  Tidal island, small islands (not always islets) which lie off the mainland of an area, being connected to it in low tide and isolated in high tide.
caption: Rockall, located west of Ireland and Scotland
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