El Niño
noun
Did you know?
Each year around Christmas time, a warm equatorial current flows southward along the coast of Peru. In the 19th century, Peruvian fisherman named that annual current "El Niño" in honor of the Christ child (el niño means "the child" in Spanish). Later, when scientists noted that in some years this warm current flow is more intense than usual, they adopted the name and applied it to that more potent but erratic climatic phenomenon. Now El Niño is used almost exclusively for the severe episodes rather than for the annual ones to which it was originally applied.
Examples of El Niño in a Sentence
ABC News,
2 July 2026
Getty Images The price of copper is poised to spike sharply higher as a powerful El Nino weather event develops in the Pacific Ocean which could trigger floods in Chile and Peru, two of world’s biggest copper producers.
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Tim Treadgold,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2026
However, Ehsan’s team forecasts that this El Nino will peak a month or two earlier based on strong early signs from recent weeks.
—
Seth Borenstein,
Chicago Tribune,
11 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“El Niño.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/El%20Ni%C3%B1o. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
El Niño
noun
Spanish, "the child" (referring to the Christ child); from the appearance of the flow at the Christmas season
