tsunami

tsunami — noun

1. A very tall and powerful ocean wave, usually set off by an earthquake below the

1.nounB1
Definition

A very tall and powerful ocean wave, usually set off by an earthquake below the sea floor or by a volcanic eruption, that can cause terrible destruction when it reaches land.

Example

When the undersea earthquake struck, a massive tsunami swept toward Arjun's island.

collocation: massive tsunami; verb: swept toward

Amira's family fled to higher ground after the tsunami warning reached their village.

collocation: tsunami warning

Common collocations
  • massive tsunami
  • tsunami warning
  • tsunami strikes
  • tsunami hits
  • trigger a tsunami
  • survive a tsunami
  • tsunami damage
Synonyms
  • tidal wave

    commonly but inaccurately used for tsunami; technically refers to a wave caused by the moon's gravitational pull

  • seismic sea wave

    formal scientific term for a tsunami caused by an earthquake

  • giant wave

    general descriptive term, less precise and can refer to any unusually large wave

Grammar Patterns

a tsunami + verb (strikes / hits / destroys)

a tsunami of + noun

Usage Note

Often confused with tidal wave, but a tidal wave is caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun, while a tsunami is caused by the movement of the sea floor during an earthquake or volcanic eruption.

Common Mistakes

A tidal wave destroyed the coastal town after the earthquake.
A tsunami destroyed the coastal town after the earthquake.
Tidal waves are caused by tides, not by earthquakes; tsunami is the correct word for earthquake-driven waves.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Tsunami, tidal wave, and storm surge are often confused but describe different phenomena. A tsunami is a very tall wave caused by the sudden movement of the sea floor during an earthquake or volcanic eruption. A tidal wave is driven by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on the ocean — it is the regular rise and fall of the sea, not a sudden destructive wall of water. A storm surge is a rise in sea level caused by strong winds from a hurricane or typhoon pushing water toward the coast. Seismic sea wave is the formal scientific term that means the same as tsunami but is rarely used in everyday speech. Giant wave is a broad, informal term that can describe any unusually large wave in the ocean, including those created by storms or landslides. For example: 'The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed over 200,000 people.' — here, using tidal wave would be incorrect because the cause was an earthquake, not the tides.

tidal waveseismic sea wavestorm surgegiant wave

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • trigger a tsunami
  • survive a tsunami
  • cause a tsunami
  • escape a tsunami

Prepositions

Etymology

JapaneseEnglish

Tsunami entered English from Japanese, where it is made up of two characters: 津 (tsu), meaning harbor or port, and 波 (nami), meaning wave. So the word literally means harbor wave — a reference to the way these waves cause the greatest destruction when they rush into harbors and coastal towns. The term was adopted by English speakers after a devastating tsunami struck Japan in the late 19th century.