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

Additional houses that have recently changed hands close by include: In June 2023, a 1,727-square-foot home on El Dorado Avenue in San Jose sold for $1,499,000, a price per square foot of $868. —Bay Area Home Report, The Mercury News, 5 Nov. 2024

Given the weird psychology that drove the antagonists in the earlier films — a crazed lady taxidermist and then a psychopathic thespian, respectively — the villains’ thirst for riches here seems a little rote, while the use of El Dorado as a device just piles cliché on top of triteness. —Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Nov. 2024

The stadium dates will mark Shakira’s first U.S. tour since the El Dorado world tour back in 2018. —Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone, 18 Oct. 2024

Luckily for the Pogues, archaeologists excavated El Dorado six months after their discovery, and the teens were honored by the town in a ceremony shown at the end of Season 3. —Monica Mercuri, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, literally, the gilded one

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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