aislar

A common verb covering both the physical/technical sense of insulating something (aislar un cable, to insulate a wire) and the sense of isolating a person, place, or group — aislarse del mundo, to cut oneself off from the world. Note the written accent shift in stressed present-tense forms: aíslo, aísla.

• Aislaron el cable para evitar un cortocircuito. — They insulated the cable to prevent a short circuit.
• Se aisló de sus amigos después de la ruptura. — He isolated himself from his friends after the breakup.
• El pueblo quedó aislado por la nieve. — The village was cut off by the snow.

Forgetting the written accent in stressed forms like aíslo, aísla, aíslan — without it the word looks like it should stress the second syllable, but the i takes the accent to keep it as its own syllable (a hiatus, not a diphthong).