What is required to consider a land mass an island?

Question

People say Great Britain is a island. Really? That is a very large island then. What about Australia? The dictionary says that it is a land mass surrounded on all sides by water.

Answer 1

any area of land smaller than a continent and entirely surrounded by water.

Islands may be classified as either continental or oceanic. Oceanic islands are those that rise to the surface from the floors of the ocean basins. Continental islands are simply unsubmerged parts of the continental shelf that are entirely surrounded by water.

Answer 2

Well you're right, it needs to be a land mass surrounded by water to be called an island. Following that definition, virtually every continent would be considered an island. So let's make a modification to the definition:

"An island is a land mass surrounded on all sides by water that is not already called something else"

That should take care of it....

Answer 3

Any land mass smaller than Australia and surrounded by water is an island. It could be argued that, by definition, Australia is an island but it designated as a continent instead....otherwise we might as well call the Americas and the Eurasia/Africa landmass an island also.

And, yes, Great Britain is an island...the eighth largest in the world.

http://worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/islands.htm

Answer 4

GB is an island... also is Australia... 2 consider a mass of land an island, it should b completely surrounded by water... if a part of it isn't... then its called a Peninsula...

Answer 5

it is as the dictionary says.and by that definition entire australia would be called an island.similarly all the continents like asia would be considered as island but when you would consider only part of it like china or india then consider only those contries on the map and these countries are not surrounded by water on all sides so they wont be called as island.
in case of great britain too if you consider entire great britain then it would be called an island but if you consider a small part of it like london then london wont be called an island as it is not covered by water on all sides

Answer 6

I have pondered the same thing. Every continent is surrounded by water, even if, some of it is ice. In that aspect, everything is an island. G.B., Ireland, etc are pretty good sized islands but they are also, inaccessible by any other means than water. (air and bridges excluded)

Answer 7

you have to see if the land mass you want is surrounded by all sides on water .then you are sure it is an island.if the land mass is surrounded on 3 sides by water it is called a peninsula.

Answer 8

It is as the dictionary says.