tsunami

See also: Tsunami and tsunâmi

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /suːˈnɑːmi/, /tsuːˈnɑːmi/; enPR: so͞o-nä'mi, tso͞o-nä'mi

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /suˈnɑmi/, /tsuˈnɑmi/; enPR: so͞o-nä'mi, tso͞o-nä'mi;
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /suˈnæmi/, /suˈnɑmi/
• 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, 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, 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, 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).

   • 2020 August 26, Nigel Harris, “Comment Special: Catastrophe at Carmont”, in Rail, page 4:

     The editor paid a heavy price - he was subsequently compelled to offer a grovelling and humiliating personal apology, following a tsunami of protest.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:tsunami.

Alternative forms

• sunami (nonstandard)

Synonyms

• seismic sea wave
• tidal wave (usage conflict)

Derived terms

• fog tsunami
• ice tsunami
• megatsunami
• meteotsunami
• meteotsunami
• teletsunami
• tsunameter
• tsunamic
• tsunamigenic
• tsunamilike
• tsunami wall

 

Translations

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

• Aneityum: najap̃ajap̃
• Arabic: تْسُونَامِي‎ m (tsunāmī)
• Armenian: ցունամի (hy) (cʿunami)
• Azerbaijani: sunami
• Basque: tsunami (eu)
• Belarusian: цуна́мі f (cunámi)
• Bikol Central: dulnop
• Bulgarian: цуна́ми n (cunámi)
• Catalan: tsunami (ca) 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
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Tsunami (de) m
• Greek: τσουνάμι (el) n (tsounámi)
• Hausa: tsùnāmī̀
• Hebrew: צוּנַמי‎ (he) m (tsunami)
• Hindi: सूनामी (sūnāmī), सुनामी (hi) f (sunāmī)
• Hungarian: cunami (hu), szökőár (hu)
• Ido: cunamio (io), tsunami (io)
• Indonesian: tsunami (id)

  Acehnese: ië beuna, alôn buluëk

  Ende: ae mesi nuka tana lala

  Nias: oloro/galoro

  Sikule: among/emong

  Simeulue: smong

  Singkil: gloro/galoro

• Irish: súnámaí m
• Italian: tsunami (it) m (invariable), maremoto (it) m
• Japanese: 津波 (ja) (つなみ, tsunami), 津浪 (ja) (つなみ, tsunami), 海嘯 (ja) (かいしょう, kaishō)

• Kannada: ಸುನಾಮಿ (kn) (sunāmi)
• Kazakh: цунами (cwnamï)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 지진 해일 (jijin haeil) (地震海溢), 쓰나미 (ko) (sseunami)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: tsunamî (ku) f

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

  Bokmål: tsunami (no) m

  Nynorsk: flodbølgje, tsunami m

• Persian: آبْلَرْزه‎ (âb-larze), سونامی‎ (fa) (sunâmi)
• Polish: tsunami (pl) n
• Portuguese: tsunami (pt) m, maremoto (pt) m
• Romanian: tsunami (ro) 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 or n, tsunami f or n
• Spanish: tsunami (es) m, maremoto (es) m
• Swahili: tsunami
• Swedish: tsunami (sv) c, flodvåg (sv) c
• Tamil: ஆழிப்பேரலை (ta) (āḻippēralai), சுனாமி (ta) (cuṉāmi)
• Telugu: సునామి (sunāmi)
• Thai: สึนามิ (th) (sʉ̀-naa-mí), คลื่นยักษ์ (khleùùn yāk)
• Turkish: tsunami (tr)
• Ukrainian: цуна́мі (uk) f (cunámi)
• Uzbek: sunami (uz)
• Vietnamese: sóng thần (vi)
• Welsh: tsunami, tswnami f
• West Frisian: tsûnamy
• Zhuang: haijsiu

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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Cebuano

Etymology

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

Noun

tsunami

1. a tsunami; a very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption

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Czech

Alternative forms

• cunami

Etymology

From Japanese.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡sunamɪ]
• Hyphenation: tsu‧na‧mi

Noun

tsunami f

1. tsunami

Declension

Declension

	singular	plural
nominative	tsunami	tsunami
genitive	tsunami	tsunami
dative	tsunami	tsunami
accusative	tsunami	tsunami
vocative	tsunami	tsunami
locative	tsunami	tsunami
instrumental	tsunami	tsunami

Further reading

• tsunami in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957

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Danish

Etymology

Borrowed 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

Etymology

From Japanese 津波.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsuˈnaːmi/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

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

1. tsunami

Hypernyms

• vloedgolf

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Finnish

Etymology

From Japanese 津波.

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

Possessive forms of tsunami (type risti)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	tsunamini	tsunamimme
2nd person	tsunamisi	tsunaminne
3rd person	tsunaminsa

Compounds

• tsunamiaalto
• tsunamivaara
• tsunamivaroitus

Anagrams

• minusta, mitsuna, muistan, mustina

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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)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tsunami m (plural tsunamis)

1. tsunami

Further reading

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

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Indonesian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Japanese 津波 (つなみ, tsunami, “tsunami, tidal wave, tidal bore”), from 津 (tsu, “harbor”) +‎ 波 (nami, “wave”).

Pronunciation

• (common) IPA^(key): /su.na.mi/
• (educated) IPA^(key): /tsu.na.mi/
• Hyphenation: tsu‧na‧mi

Noun

tsunami (plural, first-person possessive tsunamiku, second-person possessive tsunamimu, third-person possessive tsunaminya)

1. tsunami: 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.

Further reading

• “tsunami” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

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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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Malay

Etymology

From Japanese 津波.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tsu.nä.mi], [su.nä.mi]

Noun

tsunami (Jawi spelling تسونامي‎, plural tsunami-tsunami, informal 1st possessive tsunamiku, impolite 2nd possessive tsunamimu, 3rd possessive tsunaminya)

1. tsunami.

Further reading

• “tsunami” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Japanese 津波 (tsunami), via English tsunami

Noun

tsunami m (definite singular tsunamien, indefinite plural tsunamier, definite plural tsunamiene)

1. a tsunami

References

• “tsunami” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “tsunami” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Japanese 津波 (tsunami), via English tsunami

Noun

tsunami m (definite singular tsunamien, indefinite plural tsunamiar, definite plural tsunamiane)

1. a tsunami

References

• “tsunami” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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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): /tsuˈna.mʲi/

Noun

tsunami n (indeclinable)

1. tsunami

Further reading

• tsunami in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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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)

   Synonym: 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): /tsuˈnami/, [t̪suˈna.mi]

Noun

tsunami m (plural tsunamis)

1. tsunami

See also

• marejada
• maremoto

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Swahili

Etymology

Borrowed from English tsunami from Japanese 津波 (tsunami)

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya)

  (file)

Noun

tsunami (n class, plural tsunami)

1. tsunami

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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