La Pérouse Strait

[ lah pey-rooz streyt ]

noun

1. a strait between the southernmost tip of the Russian island Sakhalin and the northernmost tip of the Japanese island Hokkaido, connecting the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. 25 miles (40 km) wide.

Word History and Origins

Origin of La Pérouse Strait¹

First recorded in 1805–10; named after French naval officer and explorer Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (1742-88?)

Example Sentences

In a provocative move, all five ships conducted a passage through La Perouse Strait, a waterway that separates the northern Japanese island from Russia’s Sakhalin Island.

From Washington Times

As will be seen later, a branch of this current runs along the north-west coast of Yezo, and through the La Perouse Strait.

From Project Gutenberg

At the beginning of the winter this ice, probably drifted across from Sakhalin by the strong current in the La Perouse Strait, sets in from the north and works down all along the north-east coast of Yezo, filling up all indentations in the coast-line, and forming a solid mass on the surface of the water.

From Project Gutenberg

Her appearance also was Turkish, and I was more than once puzzled as to what a Turkish ship could have been doing in the La Perouse Strait.

From Project Gutenberg

Some of the wreckage one finds on that coast has been drifted there from the Chinese Sea by the Kuroshiwo current; and then, owing to the La Perouse Strait turning so sharply to the east, has been left on this last portion of the coast.

From Project Gutenberg