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

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

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

From Science Daily • May 13, 2026

But the British Isles have "astonishing scenery" and "extraordinary animal dramas and wildlife spectacles to match anything I have seen on my global travels", he said.

From BBC • May 8, 2026

On Monday, the price of unleaded fuel in Alderney was £2.30 per litre, and diesel was £2.58, making it one of the most expensive places to buy petrol in the British Isles.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 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