British Isles
5
2.4
- proper noun
:
Islas Británicas
- The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands nearby.
- British Isles, including Ireland
- British Isles and northern Europe
Essentially the two islands are referred to as the British Isles.
- Essentially the two islands are referred to as the British Isles.
- And over in in the British Isles and Ireland, people stand for office.
- But Germany, Italy, France, the British Isles certainly would have seemed discouraging.
- But I, I think that I think a lot of the, the heritage goes way back, you know, and in, in in the British Isles.
- You had a flourishing wine industry in the British Isles, right, which didn't exist until genetic modifications allowed the reintroduction of.
Examples
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40 years ago, in millions of living rooms across the British Isles, a strange alien creature was beamed onto our television screens.
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About half the foreign-born population were German speakers, and another 30 percent were from the British Isles, including Ireland.
Academic text (1992) -
And over in in the British Isles and Ireland, people stand for office.
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It's been 24 hours now since the snow started falling across the British Isles... ...and over Northern Europe.
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His command of English was said to match that of a native of the British Isles.
Academic text (1995) -
His plan was to ride a bike through the British Isles.
Fiction book (1994) -
Giants once dominated the British Isles.
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Welcome to the British Isles, or maybe just the Isles.
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In the British Isles, for example, we made sure that the venerable Post Office would run their system.
Fiction book (1997) -
While the cross spread rapidly through the British Isles, those who lived there never truly forgot their polytheist roots.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'British' (relating to Britain) + 'isles' (islands): a group of islands associated with Britain. This adjective + noun geographic naming pattern is common cross-linguistically and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
British Isles comes from the old idea of the islands where the British people lived. The word isles means 'islands', so the phrase today refers to Great Britain, Ireland and the nearby smaller islands.