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Great Britain
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British Isles terminology
The difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom
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Island, New Caledonia.
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Union Jack, British flag, Flag of Great Britain, British Culture, British Empire, England, English Culture, English Flag
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Union Jack flag of Great Britain, united kingdom
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Parsons Weems' Fable, oil on canvas by Grant Wood, 1939; in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Catalog entry: The historian Mason Locke Weems, commonly known by his clerical title, Parson Weems, pulls back a curtain to point at 6-year-old George Washington. Bearing an adult head and holding an axe, George gazes blankly up at his father, Augustine, who questions his son while holding a partially cut cherry tree. All of this takes place in front of a 20th-century brick building, which Wood modeled after his own home in Iowa. The scene illustrates the fable of Washington and the cherry tree, which Weems invented in 1806 for the first president's biography. Wood playfully suggests the artifice of the tale here, presenting the story in the manner of a costumed stage play rather than a real event. Amid the action, two Black figures pick cherries in the background, a reference to Washington' slaveholding past and a reminder of of what often gets left out in historical mythmaking.
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British Isles terminology
British Isles terminology Map showing the terminology commonly used to describe the British Isles, the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and Ireland. The terms used here are a mixture of geographic and political labels.

Great Britain

island, Europe
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The difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom
The difference between Great Britain and the United KingdomBritain. Great Britain. The United Kingdom. The British Isles.
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Great Britain, island lying to the east of the island of Ireland and off the northwestern coast of Europe. It consists of England, Scotland, and Wales. Great Britain is part of the British Isles, together with the island of Ireland as well as smaller islands and island groups.

The term Great Britain, which this article uses as a geographic designation, is often used as a synonym for the United Kingdom, a political entity that includes England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and that was once part of the British Empire.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.