Hebrides

//ˈhɛbɹədiːz// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The islands off the west coast of Scotland, divided into the Inner Hebrides and the Outer Hebrides.
  2. 2
    A sea area that is centred on these islands.

Synonyms

All synonyms
hebridean islandshebridean isleswestern islandswestern isles

Example

More examples

"On the eighteenth day out from Sydney, we were cruising under the lee of Erromango—of course you know Erromango, an isolated island between the New Hebrides and the Loyalty group—when suddenly our dusky Polynesian boy, Nassaline, who was at the masthead on the lookout, gave a surprised cry of "Boat ahoy!" and pointed with his skinny black finger to a dark dot away southward on the horizon, in the direction of Fiji."

Etymology

From Latin Hebudes or Haebudes, with u likely turned to ri by scribal error. Earlier origin unknown, though Venneman (1999) speculatively offers a Proto-Semitic solution in *’y (“island”) + *p d (“lamb”). Compare Ancient Greek Ἕβουδαι (Héboudai), islands mentioned by Ptolemy and Pliny, likely the Hebrides.

Related phrases

Inner HebridesOuter HebridesSea of the Hebridesinner hebridesouter hebridessea area

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.