How to Use isthmus in a Sentence

isthmus

noun
  • The city was built on an isthmus — a thin strip of land between two bodies of water.
    — Berly McCoy, NPR, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Langlade used to be its own island, but now it’s connected by a sand isthmus.
    — Hillary Richards, Travel + Leisure, 28 June 2023
  • Head to the other side of the isthmus (Railay East) for a rockin' bar scene.
    — Anne Olivia Bauso, Travel + Leisure, 12 Apr. 2021
  • Vestiges of the famous trackway can still be seen on the isthmus today.
    — Dimitris Sideridis, CNN, 11 Nov. 2022
  • The 21 million-year-old teeth were found on part of the isthmus that was a peninsula at the time.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 14 Dec. 2016
  • Head to the other side of the isthmus (Railay East) for a happening bar scene.
    — Anne Olivia Bauso, Travel + Leisure, 12 Apr. 2021
  • There are multiple mountain ranges on the southern edge of the isthmus, but there’s a gap that allows winds through.
    — Matthew Cappucci, Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2023
  • The tests took place about twenty miles south of Christchurch, on a thin, dusty isthmus called the Kaitorete Spit.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024
  • Kokaral had become a peninsula and then an isthmus as the water level dropped.
    — Ken Jennings, Condé Nast Traveler, 25 June 2018
  • The blue lines could be a stamp, a tattoo, an island, a spit, an isthmus, a lake, a mountain of two lopsided circles.
    — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 3 May 2023
  • It is only connected to Faial by an isthmus, a narrow strip of land with a dune system.
    — Emese MacZko, Forbes.com, 8 May 2025
  • The elders in his family would tell him of the Zapotecs who lived on the isthmus and regale him with their folklore.
    — Jonathan Kandell, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2019
  • On one side of this narrow isthmus, the waves of the Gulf break on a rocky beach with full force; the other side looks out onto a sheltered bay.
    — Taras Grescoe, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 July 2022
  • For most, a visit to the isthmus country begins with a quick stop in the capital city before jetting off to nature.
    — Julia Eskins, Vogue, 1 Jan. 2019
  • The island’s isthmus—the horizontal stroke of that lowercase r—seems to be submerged.
    — Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 26 Sep. 2017
  • Part of this route is around the Garrison which bulges like a balloon from the rest of the island, separated by an isthmus.
    — Kate Eshelby, CNN, 14 June 2021
  • Pagan is actually two volcanoes; the other is across the isthmus from the one that's erupting.
    — Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 14 Apr. 2012
  • My uncles hopped off, driving stakes into the bank with large mallets and tying lines to keep the stern from drifting onto the low-lying isthmus.
    — Sunset, 22 Jan. 2018
  • The prospect of digging a canal across the narrow isthmus had been floating around for more than two centuries before the project came about, with various stops and starts.
    — Dimitris Sideridis, CNN, 11 Nov. 2022
  • The two oceans have been separated for some three million years, ever since the isthmus of Panama rose out of the water and split them.
    — Charlie Cordero, New York Times, 7 Jan. 2025
  • Commonly straits are formed by tectonic activity, such as a fracture in an isthmus.
    — Scott Spires, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Apr. 2026
  • We are connected to the Spanish mainland via two bridges and a natural isthmus, which has been in use since Roman times.
    — Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Sep. 2025
  • One visit is just scratching the surface of the isthmus nation; here are nine ideas for how to spend your next Panamanian holiday.
    — Siobhan Reid, Condé Nast Traveler, 16 May 2024
  • Assos Assos is one more must-see spot on the island with cheerful pastel homes built on an isthmus that measures just 164 feet across.
    — Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 5 Nov. 2024
  • Squeezed onto an isthmus between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, with three other lakes in the area.
    — Chelsey Lewis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 28 May 2022
  • At the beginning of the 20th century, the isthmus of Panama was part of Colombia.
    — Lisa Friedman, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2025
  • The Chonhar bridge hit overnight is one of just a handful of access roads to Crimea, which is linked to the Ukrainian mainland by a narrow isthmus.
    — Reuters, NBC News, 22 June 2023
  • On a recent morning, workers were laying fresh tracks on the train route that will cross the isthmus, carrying cargo from the Pacific to the Gulf.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2022
  • These pilots are the only ones allowed to make the 50-mile transit, with the ship’s captain required to cede control for the complex journey through the isthmus passage.
    — Silvana Paternostro Nathalia Angarita, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2025
  • In recent months, a severe drought has limited access to the Panama Canal and forced some cargo to be transported across the isthmus by rail instead of ship.
    — Evan Halper, Washington Post, 16 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'isthmus.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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