El Dorado

noun

El Do·​ra·​do ˌel-də-ˈrä-(ˌ)dō 

-ˈrā-

1

: a city or country of fabulous riches held by 16th century explorers to exist in South America

2

: a place of fabulous wealth or opportunity

Did you know?

In the early 1500s, Spanish conquistadores heard tales of an Amazonian king who regularly coated his body with gold dust, then plunged into a nearby lake to wash it off while being showered with gold and jewels thrown by his subjects. The Spaniards called the city ruled by this flamboyant monarch El Dorado, Spanish for "gilded one," and the story of the gold-covered king eventually grew into a legend of a whole country paved with gold. These days, El Dorado can also used generically for any place of vast riches, abundance, or opportunity. It is also the name of actual cities in Arkansas and Kansas.

Examples of El Dorado in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The California Highway Patrol was investigating a crash on Friday that briefly shut down Highway 50 in El Dorado County after a vehicle went off the road and crashed at the bottom of an embankment, leaving its driver and passenger with serious injuries. —Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 3 Apr. 2026

Two people were hospitalized with major injuries after a crash along an El Dorado County freeway late Friday morning, officials said. —Richard Ramos, CBS News, 3 Apr. 2026

Other contributors are Adrian Lopez from Ganesha, Augie Lopez from Loyola, Abbrie Covarrubias from Cypress, Isaac Cadena from El Dorado, Dean Carpentier from Huntington Beach, Andrew Lamb from JSerra and Richard Tejeda from Orange Lutheran. —Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2026

El Dorado, Villa Park and Yorba Linda are in it and are sites for the games. —Steve Fryer, Oc Register, 30 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, literally, the gilded one

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for El Dorado

• avocado
• desperado
• adelantado
• bravado
• machado
• mikado
• incommunicado

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