Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A cooling of the ocean surface off the western coast of South America, occurring periodically every 4 to 12 years and affecting Pacific and other weather patterns.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A sustained sea-surface temperature anomaly of magnitude greater than 0.5°C across the central tropical Pacific Ocean, associated with a
negative anomaly and producing predictable variations in local and regional weather patterns.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[American Spanish, the girl (to distinguish it from El Niño) : Spanish la, the (from Latin illa, feminine of ille; see al- in Indo-European roots) + niña, daughter (from Old Spanish ninna, from Vulgar Latin *nīnna).]
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Examples
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