Pearl Harbor

American  

noun

1. a harbor near Honolulu, on S Oahu, in Hawaii: surprise attack by Japan on the U.S. naval base and other military installations December 7, 1941.

2. any significant or crippling defeat, betrayal, loss, etc., that comes unexpectedly.

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Pearl Harbor British  

noun

1. an almost landlocked inlet of the Pacific on the S coast of the island of Oahu, Hawaii: site of a US naval base attacked by the Japanese in 1941, resulting in the US entry into World War II

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Pearl Harbor Cultural  

1. A major United States naval base in Hawaii that was attacked without warning by the Japanese air force on December 7, 1941, with great loss of American lives and ships. In asking Congress to declare war on Japan the next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described the day of the attack as “a date which will live in infamy.”

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Example Sentences

Pearl Harbor effectively ended the battleship era for the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times

Multiple committees examined the country’s lack of preparedness preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other military installations in 1941.

From Salon

Some elements of the account remain frustratingly unclear—most notably, whether the Kuehns’ spying was a practical aid to Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal

She was re-elected to Congress in 1941 and argued against America joining the fight in World War II. But the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor later that year galvanized the country.

From The Wall Street Journal