Kuril Islands

American  

[koor-il ahy-luhnz, koo-reel] / ˈkʊər ɪl ˈaɪ lənz, kʊˈril /

plural noun

1. a chain of more than 55 small volcanic islands off the northeast coast of Asia, extending from northern Japan to the southern tip of Kamchatka: under Russian administration since Soviet invasion 1945, but subject to dispute, as with Japan’s ongoing claim to the four southernmost islands.

---

Kuril Islands British  

/ kʊˈriːl /

plural noun

1. Japanese name: Chishima.  a chain of 56 volcanic islands off the NE coast of Asia, extending for 1200 km (750 miles) from the S tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula to NE Hokkaido. Area: 14 990 sq km (6020 sq miles)

---

Etymology

Origin of Kuril Islands

First recorded in 1895–1900; from Russian Kuríl'skiye Ostrová, from Ainu kur “man”

Example Sentences

Breeding occurs in regions spanning from Año Nuevo Island in Central California to the Kuril Islands north of Japan, with the greatest concentration of breeding grounds in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 30, 2026

“Morton launched his last two torpedoes,” Mr. Clavin writes of a 1943 encounter off the Kuril Islands, somewhere between Russia and Japan.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

Japan asserts territorial rights to the Kuril Islands, which it calls the Northern Territories.

From Washington Times • Apr. 14, 2023

The Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a September report that overshadowed by the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow's militarisation of the Kuril Islands "has flown largely under the radar."

From Reuters • Dec. 6, 2022

The name means Japan Island and is given because Resanof designated it as the place to keep captive Japanese whom he expected to capture through his expedition against the lower Kuril Islands in 1806.

From The Story of Sitka The Historic Outpost of the Northwest Coast by Andrews, Clarence Leroy