tsunami

See also: Tsunami and tsunâmi

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Japanese 津波 (tsunami), from 津 (tsu, “harbor”) +‎ 波 (nami, “wave”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: so͞o-nä'mi, tso͞o-nä'mi; IPA^(key): /suːˈnɑːmi/, /tsuːˈnɑːmi/
• (General American) enPR: so͞o-nä'mi, tso͞o-nä'mi; IPA^(key): /suˈnɑmi/, /tsuˈnɑmi/
• Rhymes: -ɑːmi

Noun

tsunami (plural tsunami or tsunamis)

1. A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption. Tsunami are usually a series of waves, or wave train.
2. (figuratively) A large and generally unstoppable surge.
   • 2009, John Bernard Kelly, An Accidental Atheist: A Memoir, Aquinine books (ISBN 9780980709711), page 306

     It seemed that what started out as a handful of isolated cases gradually turned into a tsunami of complaints.

   • 2009, Marc Eliot, American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood, Crown Archetype (ISBN 9780307462497), page 86

     It set off a tsunami of debate among the more esoteric critics, who either loved it or hated it but could not ignore it.

   • 2012, Demetra M. Pappas, The Euthanasia/Assisted-Suicide Debate, ABC-CLIO (ISBN 9780313341878), page 60

     The next decade would culminate in a tsunami of legislation, civil litigation, and criminal prosecutions in which assisted suicide was both criminalized (as in Michigan) and decriminalized (as in Oregon).

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:tsunami.

Alternative forms

• sunami (nonstandard)

Synonyms

• seismic sea wave
• tidal wave (usage conflict)

Derived terms

Derived terms

• fog tsunami
• ice tsunami
• megatsunami

• teletsunami
• tsunameter
• tsunamigenic

Translations

large, destructive wave generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean

• Aneityum: najap̃ajap̃
• Arabic: تْسُونَامِي‏‎ m (tsunāmī)
• Armenian: ցունամի (hy) (cʿunami)
• Azeri: sunami
• Basque: tsunami (eu)
• Belarusian: цунамі f (cunámi)
• Bulgarian: цунами n (cunámi)
• Catalan: tsunami m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 海嘯, 海啸 (hoi² siu³)

  Mandarin: 海嘯 (zh), 海啸 (zh) (hǎixiào)

  Min Nan: 海漲, 海涨 (hái-tiòng), chu-ná-mih

• Czech: tsunami (cs) f (indeclinable)
• Danish: tsunami (da) c, flodbølge c
• Dutch: tsunami (nl) m, vloedgolf (nl) m
• Esperanto: cunamo
• Estonian: tsunami (et)
• Finnish: hyökyaalto (fi), tsunami (fi)
• French: tsunami (fr) m
• German: Tsunami (de) m
• Greek: τσουνάμι (el) n (tsounámi)
• Hausa: tsùnāmī̀ m
• Hebrew: צוּנַמי‏‎ (he) m (tsunami)
• Hindi: सूनामी (sūnāmī)
• Hungarian: cunami (hu), szökőár (hu)
• Ido: cunamio (io), tsunami (io)
• Indonesian: tsunami (id)
• Italian: tsunami (it) m (invariable), maremoto (it) m
• Japanese: 津波 (ja) (つなみ, tsunami), 津浪 (ja) (つなみ, tsunami)
• Korean: 지진 해일 (jijin haeil) (地震海溢), 쓰나미 (ko) (sseunami)
• Kurdish: tsunamî (ku) f

• Latvian: cunami
• Lithuanian: cunamis m
• Macedonian: цунами n (cunámi)
• Malay: tsunami
• Maori: parawhenua
• Marathi: त्सुनामी f (tsunāmī), सुनामी f (sunāmī)
• Navajo: tó nitéél nitságo atságáá
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tsunami (no) m

  Nynorsk: flodbølgje

• Persian: آبْلَرْزه‏‎ (âb-larze), سونامی‏‎ (fa) (sunâmi)
• Polish: tsunami (pl) n
• Portuguese: tsunami (pt) m, maremoto (pt) m
• Romanian: tsunami m
• Russian: цуна́ми (ru) n (cunámi)
• Scottish Gaelic: tsunami f, tonn-tuile m, tonn-taomaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian: veleval m

  Cyrillic: цунами m

  Roman: cunami (sh) m

• Slovak: cunami f, n, tsunami f, n
• Spanish: tsunami (es) m, maremoto (es) m
• Swahili: tsunami
• Swedish: tsunami (sv) c, flodvåg (sv) c
• Tamil: ஆழிப்பேரலை (ta) (āḻippēralai), சுனாமி (ta) (cuṉāmi)
• Thai: คลื่นสึนามิ (th) (klʉ̂ʉn-sʉ̀-naa-mí), คลื่นยักษ์ (khleùùn yāk)
• Turkish: tsunami (tr)
• Ukrainian: цуна́мі (uk) f (cunámi)
• Vietnamese: sóng thần (vi)
• Welsh: tsunami, tswnami f
• West Frisian: tsûnamy

See also

• earthquake
• flood
• natural disaster
• seaquake
• seiche
• tidal wave
• tsunami earthquake
• waterquake

Further reading

• tsunami on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• tsunami on Wikiversity.Wikiversity
• tsunami on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• Mustain, Natsumi, manitus, santimu, utinams

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Czech

Etymology

From Japanese.

Noun

tsunami f

1. tsunami

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Danish

Etymology

Borrowing from Japanese 津波

Noun

tsunami

1. tsunami

Declension

Declension of tsunami

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	tsunami	tsunamien	tsunamier	tsunamierne
genitive	tsunamis	tsunamiens	tsunamiers	tsunamiernes

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsuˈnaːmi/

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology

From Japanese 津波.

Noun

tsunami m (plural tsunami's, diminutive tsunamietje n)

1. tsunami

Hypernyms

• vloedgolf

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Finnish

Etymology

From Japanese.

Noun

tsunami

1. tsunami

Declension

Inflection of tsunami (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative		tsunami	tsunamit
genitive		tsunamin	tsunamien
partitive		tsunamia	tsunameja
illative		tsunamiin	tsunameihin
		singular	plural
nominative		tsunami	tsunamit
accusative	nom.	tsunami	tsunamit
	gen.	tsunamin
genitive		tsunamin	tsunamien
partitive		tsunamia	tsunameja
inessive		tsunamissa	tsunameissa
elative		tsunamista	tsunameista
illative		tsunamiin	tsunameihin
adessive		tsunamilla	tsunameilla
ablative		tsunamilta	tsunameilta
allative		tsunamille	tsunameille
essive		tsunamina	tsunameina
translative		tsunamiksi	tsunameiksi
instructive		—	tsunamein
abessive		tsunamitta	tsunameitta
comitative		—	tsunameineen

Compounds

• tsunamiaalto
• tsunamivaara
• tsunamivaroitus

Anagrams

• minusta, muistan

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French

Etymology

From Japanese 津波 / 津浪 (つなみ, tsunami, “harbour wave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsy.na.mi/

• Audio (FR)

  (file)

Noun

tsunami m (plural tsunamis)

1. tsunami

Further reading

• “tsunami” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Etymology

Japanese

Noun

tsunami m (invariable)

1. tsunami

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Japanese

Romanization

tsunami

1. Rōmaji transcription of つなみ

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Polish

Etymology

From Japanese 津波 / 津浪 (つなみ (tsunami, “seismic sea wave”, literally “harbour wave”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [t͡s̪s̪ũn̪ãmʲi]

Noun

tsunami n (indeclinable)

1. tsunami

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Portuguese

Alternative forms

• tsunâmi (rare)

Etymology

From Japanese 津波 / 津浪 (つなみ (“seismic sea wave”, literally “harbour wave”)).

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /t͡su.ˈnɐ.mi/, /t͡ʃi.su.ˈnɐ.mi/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /t͡su.ˈnɐ.mi/
• Hyphenation: tsu‧na‧mi

Noun

tsunami m or f (in variation) (plural tsunamis)

1. tsunami (large, destructive wave)

Synonyms

• maremoto

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Spanish

Etymology

From English tsunami, from Japanese 津波 / 津浪 (つなみ, tsunami, “harbour wave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(t)suˈna̠mi/

Noun

tsunami m (plural tsunamis)

1. tsunami

See also

• marejada
• maremoto

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Swedish

Etymology

From Japanese.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsʉːˈnɑːmɪ/, /tsɵˈnɑːmɪ/

Noun

tsunami c

1. tsunami

Declension

Declension of tsunami
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	tsunami	tsunamin	tsunamier	tsunamierna
Genitive	tsunamis	tsunamins	tsunamiers	tsunamiernas