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

See Examples For:

Pearl Harbor

“The U.S. is absolutely vulnerable to a Pearl Harbor in space,” this person told me.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

Unlike the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the intent was unclear and the enemy was stateless.

From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026

HONOLULU—Dozens of warships sat docked next to one another at Pearl Harbor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the 17-year-old who would become my father lied about his age to enlist in the Marines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

Lawrence stunned his colleagues with the disclosure that the Rad Lab had isolated a microscopic quantity of U-235 on the very day before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik