aisle

Example sentences

• "You'll find the cereal in the third aisle from the entrance."

  Level A2

• "I always ask for an aisle seat on a plane."

  Level A2

• "The bride walked slowly down the aisle."

  Level B1

• "The aisles in this shop are very narrow."

  Level A2

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• isle : An isle is a small island. It sounds the same as aisle but is spelled differently.
• I'll : I'll is a short form of I will. It also sounds the same as aisle.

Word family and forms

Forms: aisles

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "aisle".

• an aisle seat
• down the aisle
• the cereal aisle
• walk down the aisle
• a narrow aisle
• the center aisle

Idioms and phrases

walk down the aisle

To get married.

"They plan to walk down the aisle next June."

Origin

Aisle comes from Middle English ele, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Middle French, where it meant a wing, from Latin ala, a wing. The first meaning was the side part of a church. The spelling with ai came from the French word aile, and the silent s from a mix-up with the English word isle.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

The s in aisle is silent. Say it like isle, an island: an aisle is a path like a thin island between seats.

Test yourself

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