El Niño
/ɛl ˈniːn.joʊ/
El Niño proper noun: an invasion of warm water into the surface of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru and Ecuador, the positive phase of the multi-year ENSO cycle, which causes changes in local and regional climate.
Proper noun
El Niño (plural El Niños or Los Niños)
- An invasion of warm water into the surface of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru and Ecuador, the positive phase of the multi-year ENSO cycle, which causes changes in local and regional climate.
- Additionally, scientists aren’t expecting to be surprised again by El Niño, a warming of the Pacific Ocean that tends to dampen Atlantic hurricane activity.2007 May 23, Houston Chronicle
- The odd weather phenomenon that many blame for the suffering here — the drought and sudden storm pattern known as El Niño — is expected to become more frequent as the planet warms.2020 July 23, Abrahm Lustgarten, “The Great Climate Migration”, in New York Times
El Niño meaning in Marathi, Persian and Thai
El Niño in Marathi
- a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon
- एल निन्यो el ninyo
El Niño in Persian
- a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon
- ال نینو el nino
El Niño in Thai
- a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon
- เอลนีโญ eel-nii-yôo
Examples of El Niño in a sentence
- In part, that’s because the planet is entering a natural climate phenomenon known as El Niño, which typically brings warmer oceans.2023 July 12, Catrin Einhorn, Elena Shao, “How Hot Is the Sea Off Florida Right Now? Think 90s Fahrenheit.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- El Niño is also partially responsible for the ongoing catastrophic rainfall in east Africa, which began in March and has caused devastating flooding in Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi.2024 May 6, Lauren Herdman, “Weather tracker: torrential rainstorms cause death and destruction in Brazil”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Antonyms of El Niño
Forms of El Niño
| plural | El Niños |
|---|---|
| plural | Los Niños |
| alternative form | El Nino |
Origin of El Niño
From Spanish El Niño (literally “The Little Boy”), used by South American fishermen in the 17th century, referring to the Christ child, as the phenomenon is observed around Christmas time.
Questions about El Niño
- What does El Niño mean?
- El Niño means an invasion of warm water into the surface of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru and Ecuador, the positive phase of the multi-year ENSO cycle, which causes changes in local and regional climate.
- What is El Niño in Marathi?
- El Niño in Marathi is एल निन्यो (el ninyo). See El Niño meaning in Marathi.
- How do you use El Niño in a sentence?
- In part, that’s because the planet is entering a natural climate phenomenon known as El Niño, which typically brings warmer oceans.
- What part of speech is El Niño?
- El Niño is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce El Niño?
- El Niño is pronounced /ɛl ˈniːn.joʊ/.
Words near El Niño in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: El Niño (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-El Niño.wav.
Cite this entry: “El Niño.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/el_ni%C3%B1o. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.