Meanings
- pluralrareGreat Britain, Ireland and surrounding smaller islands; the British and Irish Isles.
All of us in the islands of the North Atlantic should recognise new alignments are necessary and "we should be prepared to sacrifice for the new shared future".
1982, World Faiths Insight2 more examples
As the Islands of the North Atlantic were mapped and remapped in the early modern period, as maps were decorated and redecorated, the bodies of Britain's and Ireland's heterogeneous inhabitants were fashioned and refashioned...
2002, David J. Baker, Willy Maley, British Identities and English Renaissance Literature, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 153The continuing presence of Irish volunteers in the British armed forces — and, for over 20 years, as conscripts - serves to underline how relations within 'IONA' - the 'Islands of the North Atlantic' - remain more complex than constitutional niceties appear to dictate.
2006, Roger Broad, Conscription in Britain, 1939-1964: The Militarisation of a Generation, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 215 - pluralUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see islands, North Atlantic.
Synonyms: Anglo-Celtic Isles, British Isles, British and Irish Isles, these islands
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see islands, North Atlantic.
Origin
Suggested in 1980 by MP John Biggs-Davison as the name for what ultimately became the British-Irish Council, subsequently adopted as a replacement for the contested term British Isles. A contrived acronym suggesting Iona, an island with cultural ties to both Britain and Ireland.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Islands of the North Atlantic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Islands%20of%20the%20North%20Atlantic
“Islands of the North Atlantic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Islands%20of%20the%20North%20Atlantic. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Islands of the North Atlantic,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Islands%20of%20the%20North%20Atlantic.
Source: Islands of the North Atlantic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.