| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| atoll |
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| SYLLABICATION: | a·toll |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   t ôl , - l,  tôl, tl |
| NOUN: | A ringlike coral island and reef that nearly or entirely encloses a lagoon. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Maldivean atolu; akin to probably akin to Sinhalese ätul, interior (from the interior lagoon), probably from Sanskrit *antala-, interior, variant of antara-. See en in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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