El Dorado

noun

El Do·​ra·​do ˌel-də-ˈrä-(ˌ)dō How to pronounce El Dorado (audio)
-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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The new route between Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and El Dorado International Airport in Bogota will begin operations on May 26, 2025, the airline revealed. Dan Perry, Newsweek, 13 Feb. 2025 The only city the agency mapped that saw a decrease in hazard severity zoning was Placerville in El Dorado County. Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2025 What’s in weather forecast for El Dorado Hills area? Camila Pedrosa, Sacramento Bee, 13 Feb. 2025 Captain Cabot, haunted by the literal ghosts of his past, seems more like Captain Ahab in his obsession with finding El Dorado’s mythical gold. Troy Aidan Sambajon, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for El Dorado 

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, literally, the gilded one

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of El Dorado was in 1596

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Dictionary Entries Near El Dorado

Cite this Entry

“El Dorado.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/El%20Dorado. Accessed 22 Feb. 2025.

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