The state of being alone or separated from others. It can describe physical separation or feeling emotionally cut off.
From “isolate” plus the noun-forming ending “-ion.” “Isolate” traces back to Italian “isolato” and Latin “insula,” meaning “island.” The word shifted from a physical sense of island-like separation to emotional and social separation as well.
In science, isolation is a superpower: isolating a variable or a virus lets you study it clearly. In everyday life, though, isolation can be painful, which is why we talk about social isolation as a serious problem. The same word can describe both a clean lab experiment and a lonely person.
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