Resilience is a prior term of debate in vulnerability research irrespective of discipline. Nowadays the resilience concept has been used abnormally in many cases without realizing its intended meaning. Therefore, this study clarifies the resilience concept in the context of climate vulnerability. An integrated review of the literature has been done by the PRISMA approach to identify the most relevant documents. Besides Walker and Avant Method has been used to analyze the concept of resilience. The use of concept in different disciplines, historical perspectives, dimensions, attributes, consequences, and relationship with vulnerability and adaptability have been reviewed to clarify it. This study also provides a theoretical and workable definition of resilience from the perspective of climate change and natural hazards. A conceptual framework has been developed with concept mapping, contributing to the existing debate on resilience study. A case analysis has been done by focusing on a climate-vulnerable community living in the riverine islands in Bangladesh. This article shows that socio-ecological systems approach to defining small island disaster resilience has shortcomings. Additionally, the research-policy divide in resilience studies is exacerbated by the paucity of studies that use the participatory approach to identify disaster resilience indicators. The study makes a compelling case for further research on how to turn academic discoveries into a resource that might benefit local people, particularly those on small islands. The study suggests that social community-based resilience should be developed to protect geographically isolated communities.