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

See Examples For:

British Isles

With growing concerns that red squirrels could soon become extinct in England, one Channel Island is a corner of the British Isles where they maintain a stronghold.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

The island became the first place in the British Isles to pass laws on assisted dying in March 2025, but they needed amendments before Royal Assent could be given.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

The third-largest Channel Island had some of the best views of the eclipse in the British Isles, despite some cloud cover.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

In November 2021, Jersey's States Assembly became the first parliament in the British Isles to decide "in principle" that assisted dying should be allowed.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 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

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