Britain

American  

[brit-n] / ˈbrɪt n /

noun

1. Great Britain.

2. Britannia.

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Britain British  

/ ˈbrɪtən /

noun

1. another name for Great Britain United Kingdom

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Britain Cultural  

1. Officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, located on the British Isles off the western coast of the mainland (continent) of Europe. It comprises England, Wales, and Scotland on the island of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. Its capital and largest city is London.

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It is one of the world's leading industrialized nations.

Most of the settlers of the American colonies were British. The colonies remained under the British crown until the American Revolutionary War.

Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. Allied with the United States and the Soviet Union, the British, under the leadership of Winston Churchill, played an important role in defeating Germany.

At the height of its imperial power in the late nineteenth century, Britain boasted colonies and possessions around the globe. (See British Empire.)

A constitutional monarchy, Britain's government calls for the hereditary king or queen to perform mostly ceremonial functions. Parliament governs the country.

Compare meaning

How does britain compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Britain vs. England
• Britain vs. Great Britain

Example Sentences

The average wait for practical driving tests across Britain are longer than five months.

From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026

The rollout would make Wayve the first company to launch a commercial autonomous taxi service in Britain, ahead of rivals Waymo, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, and China's Baidu.

From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026

For a number of years, people around Britain have spoken of what they perceived to be "dodgy shops" on their High Street.

From BBC • Jun. 7, 2026

The resulting recession lasted 18 months and spread to Britain.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026

When Charles II heard the news, he decided that, as a seafaring nation, Britain had to have the necessary information as an aid to navigation, and the planned observatory became a project of the Crown.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin