tsunami

UK/(t)suːˈnɑːmi/US/(t)suːˈnɑːmi/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,471 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: tsunamis

A tsunami is the giant ocean wave set off by an undersea earthquake. A tsunami warning, the tsunami struck, a tsunami of complaints.

In deep water it is barely a ripple and travels as fast as an airliner; it only rears up when it reaches the shallows. The sea drawing back suddenly is the warning sign. It is not a tidal wave, since tides have nothing to do with it.

Definitions of tsunami

1nountsunamiA giant ocean wave set off by an undersea earthquake.B2+
“After the earthquake, a tsunami swept away whole villages along the coast.”

tsunami is a wave.

Also accepted in games: tidal wave

Where it comes from

Japanese tsunami means harbour wave — tsu, a harbour, plus nami, a wave.

Japanese
津波
English, today
tsunami

Borrowed from Japanese 津波. Japanese 津波, from 津 + 波.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather

Practise this word

tsunami in the wild

Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide.
Tsunami
Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous, and they can affect entire ocean basins.
Tsunami
Nearby, a 27-foot (8.2 m) tsunami destroyed the village of Chenega, killing 23 of the 68 people who lived there.
1964 Alaska earthquake
Post-quake tsunamis severely affected Whittier, Seward, Kodiak, and other Alaskan communities, as well as people and property in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California.
1964 Alaska earthquake
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami (Spanish: Terremoto de Valdivia) or the Great Chilean earthquake (Gran terremoto de Chile) occurred on 22 May 1960.
1960 Valdivia earthquake

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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