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

The Isle of Man became the first place in the British Isles to pass its assisted dying bill in March last year.

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026

“This race kind of fell apart a little bit with a couple scratches,” British Isles trainer Richard Baltas said, “but there were still some nice horses in there and he did it with authority.”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 7, 2026

One of the Channel Islands, Jersey is part of the British Isles but sets its own laws.

From BBC • Feb. 26, 2026

They examined how common the C282Y variant was in 29 regions across the British Isles and Ireland.

From Science Daily • Feb. 21, 2026

Michael Fish said the area of low pressure moving over the British Isles is coming from the Urals.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell