British West Indies

American  

plural noun

1. a term formerly used for the possessions of Great Britain in the West Indies.

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British West Indies British  

plural noun

1. a former name for the states in the Caribbean that are members of the Commonwealth: the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; along with the islands which remain as United Kingdom dependencies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the British Virgin Islands

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Example Sentences

Hamilton was born out of wedlock on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2025

The 19th Century prime minister was the son of John Gladstone, one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies.

From BBC • Aug. 25, 2023

Instead, he had placed the money in an unregistered tax-free bank in the British West Indies.

From Washington Post • Apr. 12, 2021

I knew that it was part of the British West Indies and the only English-speaking country in South America.

From The Guardian • Apr. 16, 2019

Louise Little, my mother, who was bom in Grenada, in the British West Indies, looked like a white woman.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey