Western Europe

Cultural  

1. Those nations in Europe that were not part of the Eastern Bloc, or more specifically, those nations allied with the United States in NATO (except Turkey). Neutral or nonaligned nations such as Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, and Spain, though western European in terms of geography, are not usually meant when the term “Western Europe” is used as the opposite for terms such as “Eastern Europe,” “the Eastern Bloc,” or “communist Europe.”

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Example Sentences

"The new normal?" poses the Guardian on its front page, imprinted over a heat map graphic of Western Europe and the UK.

From BBC • Jun. 24, 2026

"The slowdown is no longer isolated to a specific region, and is now visible in other regions such as Western Europe," said analysts at the consulting group Cirium.

From Barron's • Jun. 6, 2026

Average male life expectancy in Russia today is about 68 years, according to official statistics, compared with roughly 76 in the U.S. and over 80 across much of Western Europe.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026

It’s a large, highly fragmented industry with 20,000 distributors between here and Western Europe, which gives you room to consolidate and scale.

From MarketWatch • May 6, 2026

I think rather that it came in response to a middle-class crisis of faith in North America and Western Europe.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez