An islet is a small island. Islets can also be called cays and keys. Rum Cay in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys off Florida are examples of islets.

A rock, a sometime synonym for a type of "islet", is a landform comprised of rock, lying offshore, having no or minimal vegetation, and uninhabited (see Mōkōlea Rock at left).

An exposed sandbar would be another type of islet. A more technical application is to small land features, isolated by water, laying off the shore of a larger island. And in related fashion, any emergent land on an atoll (a type of island) would also be called an islet.