La Niña

noun

La Ni·​ña lä-ˈnē-nyə How to pronounce La Niña (audio) -nyä How to pronounce La Niña (audio)
plural La Niñas
: an irregularly recurring upwelling of unusually cold water to the ocean surface along the western coast of South America that often occurs following an El Niño and that disrupts typical regional and global weather patterns especially in a manner opposite to that of El Niño

Examples of La Niña in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Last year, for the first time, bleaching occurred during rainy and cooler La Nina conditions, even while some corals were gaining ground. Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, 17 Aug. 2023 This episode of La Nina left many parts of the world under extreme conditions, fatal for human life. Niharika Sharma, Quartz, 12 May 2023 Grasshopper outbreaks appear to get triggered by climate oscillations like La Nina and El Nino, according to Chelse Prather, an associate professor of environmental biology at the University of Dayton. Leia Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 3 Aug. 2023 For the previous three years El Nino’s cool flip side, La Nina, dampened a bit of the heat humans are causing. Seth Borenstein, Anchorage Daily News, 22 July 2023 Many of those ups and downs are caused by the natural El Nino and La Nina cycle. CBS News, 17 July 2023 The current El Nino — a period of warming Pacific Ocean waters — formed a month or two earlier than usual, replacing a La Nina that, with its cooling of Pacific waters, served as a damper on global temperatures. Time, 6 July 2023 The world earlier this year got out of an unusually long-lasting and strong La Nina — El Nino’s flip side with cooling — that exacerbated drought in the U.S. West and augmented Atlantic hurricane season. Seth Borenstein and Isabella O'Malley, Anchorage Daily News, 8 June 2023 How El Niño and La Nina Are Different El Niño: The sea’s surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean warms to above-average temperatures. Popular Mechanics, 24 May 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'La Niña.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, the (female) child

First Known Use

1981, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of La Niña was in 1981

Dictionary Entries Near La Niña

Cite this Entry

“La Niña.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/La%20Ni%C3%B1a. Accessed 27 Sep. 2023.

Kids Definition

La Niña

noun
La Ni·​ña lä-ˈnē-nyə How to pronounce La Niña (audio) -nyä How to pronounce La Niña (audio)
: an irregularly occurring movement of deep cold water to the ocean surface along the western coast of South America that often occurs after an El Niño and that disrupts weather patterns especially in a manner opposite that of an El Niño
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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