"El Niño" meaning in English

See El Niño in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

IPA: /ɛl ˈniːn.joʊ/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-El Niño.wav Forms: El Niños [plural]
Etymology: 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. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|es|El Niño|lit=The Little Boy}} Spanish El Niño (literally “The Little Boy”) Head templates: {{en-prop|s|nolinkhead=1}} El Niño (plural El Niños)
  1. 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. Categories (topical): Weather Synonyms: El Nino Hyponyms: super-Niño Translations (a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon): Ел Ниньо (El Ninjo) (Bulgarian), 厄爾尼諾 /厄尔尼诺 (È'ěrnínuò) (Chinese Mandarin), 厄爾尼諾現象 /厄尔尼诺现象 (È'ěrnínuò xiànxiàng) (Chinese Mandarin), 聖嬰現象 /圣婴现象 (Shèng Yīng xiànxiàng) [Taiwan] (Chinese Mandarin), El Niňo [masculine, neuter] (Czech), El-Ninjo (Esperanto), El Niño (Finnish), El Niño [masculine] (French), El Niño [masculine] (German), Ελ Νίνιο (El Nínio) [neuter] (Greek), エルニーニョ (Erunīnyo) (Japanese), 엘니뇨 (ellinyo) (Korean), 엘니뇨 현상 (ellinyo hyeonsang) (Korean), एल निन्यो (el ninyo) (Marathi), ال نینو (el nino) (Persian), El Niño [masculine] (Portuguese), Эль-Ни́ньо (Elʹ-Nínʹo) (Russian), El Niño [masculine] (Spanish), เอลนีโญ (eel-nii-yôo) (Thai), El Niño (Turkish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "La Niña"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "es",
        "3": "El Niño",
        "lit": "The Little Boy"
      },
      "expansion": "Spanish El Niño (literally “The Little Boy”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "El Niños",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s",
        "nolinkhead": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "El Niño (plural El Niños)",
      "name": "en-prop"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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        },
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          "source": "w"
        },
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            "Terms with redundant transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 7 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Czech translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Esperanto translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Greek translations",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Japanese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Korean translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Marathi translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Persian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Thai translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Turkish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Weather",
          "orig": "en:Weather",
          "parents": [
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            "Nature",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007 May 23, Houston Chronicle:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 July 23, Abrahm Lustgarten, “The Great Climate Migration”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "In part, that’s because the planet is entering a natural climate phenomenon known as El Niño, which typically brings warmer oceans. But now, El Niño is coming on top of long-term warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 May 6, Lauren Herdman, “Weather tracker: torrential rainstorms cause death and destruction in Brazil”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "hyponyms": [
        {
          "word": "super-Niño"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-El_Niño-en-name-S1~BkaZG",
      "links": [
        [
          "invasion",
          "invasion"
        ],
        [
          "Pacific Ocean",
          "Pacific Ocean"
        ],
        [
          "Peru",
          "Peru"
        ],
        [
          "Ecuador",
          "Ecuador"
        ],
        [
          "ENSO",
          "ENSO"
        ],
        [
          "climate",
          "climate"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "El Nino"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "El Ninjo",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "Ел Ниньо"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "È'ěrnínuò",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "厄爾尼諾 /厄尔尼诺"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "È'ěrnínuò xiànxiàng",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "厄爾尼諾現象 /厄尔尼诺现象"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "Shèng Yīng xiànxiàng",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "tags": [
            "Taiwan"
          ],
          "word": "聖嬰現象 /圣婴现象"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "tags": [
            "masculine",
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "El Niňo"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "El-Ninjo"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "El Niño"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "El Niño"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "El Niño"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "El Nínio",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Ελ Νίνιο"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "Erunīnyo",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "エルニーニョ"
        },
        {
          "code": "ko",
          "lang": "Korean",
          "roman": "ellinyo",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "엘니뇨"
        },
        {
          "code": "ko",
          "lang": "Korean",
          "roman": "ellinyo hyeonsang",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "엘니뇨 현상"
        },
        {
          "code": "mr",
          "lang": "Marathi",
          "roman": "el ninyo",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "एल निन्यो"
        },
        {
          "code": "fa",
          "lang": "Persian",
          "roman": "el nino",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "ال نینو"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "El Niño"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "Elʹ-Nínʹo",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "Эль-Ни́ньо"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "El Niño"
        },
        {
          "code": "th",
          "lang": "Thai",
          "roman": "eel-nii-yôo",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "เอลนีโญ"
        },
        {
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
          "word": "El Niño"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɛl ˈniːn.joʊ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-El Niño.wav",
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    }
  ],
  "word": "El Niño"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "La Niña"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "es",
        "3": "El Niño",
        "lit": "The Little Boy"
      },
      "expansion": "Spanish El Niño (literally “The Little Boy”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "El Niños",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s",
        "nolinkhead": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "El Niño (plural El Niños)",
      "name": "en-prop"
    }
  ],
  "hyponyms": [
    {
      "word": "super-Niño"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proper nouns",
        "English terms borrowed from Spanish",
        "English terms derived from Spanish",
        "English terms spelled with Ñ",
        "English terms spelled with ◌̃",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
        "Pages with 7 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
        "Terms with Czech translations",
        "Terms with Esperanto translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Greek translations",
        "Terms with Japanese translations",
        "Terms with Korean translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Marathi translations",
        "Terms with Persian translations",
        "Terms with Portuguese translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "Terms with Thai translations",
        "Terms with Turkish translations",
        "en:Weather"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007 May 23, Houston Chronicle:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 July 23, Abrahm Lustgarten, “The Great Climate Migration”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "In part, that’s because the planet is entering a natural climate phenomenon known as El Niño, which typically brings warmer oceans. But now, El Niño is coming on top of long-term warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 May 6, Lauren Herdman, “Weather tracker: torrential rainstorms cause death and destruction in Brazil”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "invasion",
          "invasion"
        ],
        [
          "Pacific Ocean",
          "Pacific Ocean"
        ],
        [
          "Peru",
          "Peru"
        ],
        [
          "Ecuador",
          "Ecuador"
        ],
        [
          "ENSO",
          "ENSO"
        ],
        [
          "climate",
          "climate"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɛl ˈniːn.joʊ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-El Niño.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b4/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-El_Ni%C3%B1o.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-El_Ni%C3%B1o.wav.mp3",
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    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "El Nino"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "El Ninjo",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "Ел Ниньо"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "È'ěrnínuò",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "厄爾尼諾 /厄尔尼诺"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "È'ěrnínuò xiànxiàng",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "厄爾尼諾現象 /厄尔尼诺现象"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "Shèng Yīng xiànxiàng",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "tags": [
        "Taiwan"
      ],
      "word": "聖嬰現象 /圣婴现象"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "El Niňo"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "El-Ninjo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "El Niño"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "El Niño"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "El Niño"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "El Nínio",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Ελ Νίνιο"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "Erunīnyo",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "エルニーニョ"
    },
    {
      "code": "ko",
      "lang": "Korean",
      "roman": "ellinyo",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "엘니뇨"
    },
    {
      "code": "ko",
      "lang": "Korean",
      "roman": "ellinyo hyeonsang",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "엘니뇨 현상"
    },
    {
      "code": "mr",
      "lang": "Marathi",
      "roman": "el ninyo",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "एल निन्यो"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "roman": "el nino",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "ال نینو"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "El Niño"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "Elʹ-Nínʹo",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "Эль-Ни́ньо"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "El Niño"
    },
    {
      "code": "th",
      "lang": "Thai",
      "roman": "eel-nii-yôo",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "เอลนีโญ"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon",
      "word": "El Niño"
    }
  ],
  "word": "El Niño"
}

Download raw JSONL data for El Niño meaning in English (6.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (9a96ef4 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.