Channel Islands

American  

[chan-l ahy-luhndz] / ˈtʃæn l ˈaɪ ləndz /

plural noun

1. a British island group in the English Channel, near the coast of France, consisting of Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey, and smaller islands. 76 square miles (198 square kilometers).

2. an island group off southern California’s Pacific coast, along the channel just south of Santa Barbara: an eight-island archipelago used for U.S. military training and testing, and noted for numerous endemic species and ecological diversity. 351 square miles (909 square kilometers).

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Channel Islands British  

plural noun

1. a group of islands in the English Channel, off the NW coast of France, consisting of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Brechou or Brecqhou, Sark, Herm, Jethou, and Lihou (all between them representing the United Kingdom Crown Dependencies of the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey) - the only part of the duchy of Normandy remaining to Britain - and the Roches Douvres and the Îles Chausey (which belong to France). Pop: 149 878 (2001). Area: 194 sq km (75 sq miles)

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Example Sentences

It was three days after a stranded mariner’s emergency flare apparently sent flames raging through the south end of Channel Islands National Park’s second-largest island.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026

Santa Rosa Island is one of five Channel Islands situated off the southern coast of California.

From BBC • May 19, 2026

A human-caused fire spread to more than 10,000 acres Sunday night on the south side of Santa Rosa Island, the second-largest of the Channel Islands.

From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026

“It’s one of our gems of the California coast,” said Michael Cohen, chair of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council.

From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026

Hitherto letters for the Channel Islands had been charged with postage only as far as Southampton, and from Southampton they had been carried to their destination by private boat.

From The History of the Post Office From Its Establishment Down to 1836 by Joyce, Herbert