EL NINO

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does El Nino mean? 

• EL NINO (noun)
  The noun EL NINO has 2 senses:

1. (oceanography) a warm ocean current that flows along the equator from the date line and south off the coast of Ecuador at Christmas time

2. the Christ child

  Familiarity information: EL NINO used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EL NINO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(oceanography) a warm ocean current that flows along the equator from the date line and south off the coast of Ecuador at Christmas time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("El Nino" is a kind of...):

ocean current (the steady flow of surface ocean water in a prevailing direction)

Domain category:

oceanography; oceanology (the branch of science dealing with physical and biological aspects of the oceans)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "El Nino"):

El Nino southern oscillation (a more intense El Nino that occurs every few years when the welling up of cold nutrient-rich water does not occur; kills plankton and fish and affects weather patterns)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The Christ child

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

Christ; Deliverer; Good Shepherd; Jesus; Jesus Christ; Jesus of Nazareth; Redeemer; Savior; Saviour; the Nazarene (a teacher and prophet born in Bethlehem and active in Nazareth; his life and sermons form the basis for Christianity (circa 4 BC - AD 29))

Domain category:

Spanish (the Romance language spoken in most of Spain and the countries colonized by Spain)

 Context examples 

Weimerskirch speculated that it could have been affected by a particularly strong El Nino weather event that warmed the southern Indian Ocean in 1997.

(Study: World's Largest King Penguin Colony Declines Sharply, VOA)

However, unlike the past two years, Earth’s average temperature in 2017 was not influenced by the warming effect of an El Nino, say scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

(2017 was 3rd warmest year on record for the globe, NOAA)

Part of last year’s jump was attributable to El Nino, the cyclical Pacific Ocean warming that produces extreme weather across the globe, causing terrestrial ecosystems to lose stored CO2 through wildfire, drought and heat waves.

(South Pole is last place on Earth to pass global warming milestone, NOAA)