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).

---

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

---

British Isles Cultural  

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

---

Example Sentences

The three sites on the Isle of Man form part of the Temperate Rainforest Restoration Programme, which looks to restore woodland areas across large swathes of the British Isles, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

From BBC • Mar. 31, 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

It means Jersey is now the second part of the British Isles where assisted dying has been fully approved - the Isle of Man was the first.

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

People were coming to the British Isles that spring.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman