Britain

---

Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ˈbɹɪ.tən/, /ˈbɹɪ.tn̩/
• (America) IPA: /ˈbɹɪ.tn̩/, [ˈbɹɪ.ɾᵊn̩], [ˈbɹɪ.ʔᵊn̩]

Proper noun

1. The island of Great Britain, consisting of England, Scotland and Wales. [from 10th c.]
2. (loosely) The United Kingdom.
3. (historical) Brittany. [from 13th c.]
4. (historical) The British state and its dominions and holdings; the British Empire. [from 17th c.]
5. (in the plural) The British Empire. [from 19th c.]
   • 1874, The Times, 14 July 1874:

     The name of 'Britain' […] ought to answer every purpose, or if that be thought too condensed, it may be pluralized into ‘The Britains’.

6. (nonstandard) The British Isles.

Synonyms

• (island) Gramarye

Related terms

• Breton
• British
• Briton
• Britannia
• Brittany
• Battle of Britain
• Broken Britain

Translations

• French: Grande-Bretagne (only full name is used for the island)
• German: Britannien
• Italian: Gran Bretagna (only full name is used for the island)
• Portuguese: Grã-Bretanha
• Russian: Брита́ния
• Spanish: Gran Bretaña (only full name is used for the island)

Noun

Britain (plural Britains)

1. (now, rare, historical) An ancient Briton. [from 15th c.]
   • 2002, L. C. Lambdin and R. T. Lambdin, Companion to Old and Middle English Literature, 2002, page 12:

     The Britains’ struggles with the Scots and Picts [...] led to the Britains asking the Romans for help in constructing a great wall.

Adjective

Britain

1. (obsolete) Briton; British. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.11:

     mightie Albion, father of the bold / And warlike people which the Britaine Islands hold […].

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002