British Isles

American  

plural noun

1. a group of islands in W Europe: Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and adjacent small islands. 120,592 sq. mi. (312,300 sq. km).

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British Isles British  

plural noun

1. a group of islands in W Europe, consisting of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland, the Channel Islands belonging to Great Britain, and the islands adjacent to these

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British Isles Cultural  

1. The islands of Great Britain and Ireland and a number of smaller islands off their coasts.

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Example Sentences

Jersey was the first part of the British Isles to ban smacking in April 2020.

From BBC • Jun. 7, 2026

Values in the mid-30s were once uncommon in the British Isles even at the height of summer.

From BBC • May 27, 2026

Oral traditions linked them to famine, war, and the deaths of kings throughout the British Isles.

From Science Daily • May 13, 2026

Although the comet reached peak brightness on April 22, 1066, it was not visible in Brittany and the British Isles until April 24.

From Science Daily • May 13, 2026

The country’s ten thousand dead had gone unmoumed and uneulogized while the boys went on singing English songs and playing cricket, moved only by reports that reached them, three weeks late, from the British Isles.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende