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

Much of Western Europe was sweltering in a gruelling heatwave on Friday with the mercury expected to continue rising in the coming days, likely shattering yet more temperature records.

From Barron's • Jun. 19, 2026

Western Europe faced another day of record-breaking temperatures Tuesday as a heatwave pushed the mercury well above normal levels for May.

From Barron's • May 26, 2026

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, which represents supermarkets says the UK was "one of the most affordable places in Western Europe for grocery shopping".

From BBC • May 24, 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