Kuril Islands

American  

[koor-il ahy-luhnz, koo-reel] / ˈkʊər ɪl ˈaɪ lənz, kʊˈril /

plural noun

1. a chain of more than 55 small volcanic islands off the northeast coast of Asia, extending from northern Japan to the southern tip of Kamchatka: under Russian administration since Soviet invasion 1945, but subject to dispute, as with Japan’s ongoing claim to the four southernmost islands.

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Kuril Islands British  

/ kʊˈriːl /

plural noun

1. Japanese name: Chishima.  a chain of 56 volcanic islands off the NE coast of Asia, extending for 1200 km (750 miles) from the S tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula to NE Hokkaido. Area: 14 990 sq km (6020 sq miles)

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Etymology

Origin of Kuril Islands

First recorded in 1895–1900; from Russian Kuríl'skiye Ostrová, from Ainu kur “man”

Example Sentences

“Morton launched his last two torpedoes,” Mr. Clavin writes of a 1943 encounter off the Kuril Islands, somewhere between Russia and Japan.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

Shoigu noted that the maneuvers’ scenario envisages a response to an adversary’s attempt to make a landing on Sakhalin Island and the southern Kuril Islands.

From Washington Times • Apr. 14, 2023

The Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a September report that overshadowed by the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow's militarisation of the Kuril Islands "has flown largely under the radar."

From Reuters • Dec. 6, 2022

They were part of Japan before World War II, but soon after its surrender in August 1945, the Soviet Union claimed the islands, which it called the Kuril Islands.

From Washington Post • Mar. 31, 2022

And then the Aleutian and Kuril Islands make a sort of breakwater to head off big bergs.

From The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers by Rolt-Wheeler, Francis