El Salvador

American  

[el sal-vuh-dawr, el sahl-vah-thawr] / ɛl ˈsæl vəˌdɔr, ɛl ˌsɑl vɑˈðɔr /

noun

1. a republic in NW Central America. 13,176 sq. mi. (34,125 sq. km). San Salvador.

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El Salvador British  

/ ɛl ˈsælvəˌdɔː /

noun

1. a republic in Central America, on the Pacific: colonized by the Spanish from 1524; declared independence in 1841, becoming a republic in 1856. It consists of coastal lowlands rising to a central plateau. Coffee constitutes over a third of the total exports. Official language: Spanish. Religion: Roman Catholic majority. Currency: US dollar. Capital: San Salvador. Pop: 6 108 590 (2013 est). Area: 21 393 sq km (8236 sq miles)

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El Salvador Cultural  

1. Republic on the Pacific coast of Central America, bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the north and east by Honduras, and to the south by the Pacific Ocean. San Salvador is its capital and largest city.

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Torn by civil unrest and characterized by guerrilla warfare and terrorism (which has included the murder of American civilians), El Salvador became in the 1980s a controversial focus of an American foreign policy that sought to protect American interests in Central America. Unrest eased in the 1990s.

Example Sentences

A Venezuelan man deported by the United States last year to a notorious prison in El Salvador filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday seeking $1.3 million in damages.

From Barron's • Mar. 24, 2026

Callejas said she agreed to return to El Salvador only because she understood that her 6-year-old and 4-year-old would be allowed to join her and their older brother.

From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026

Weiss also faced criticism in December after she made the decision to pull a segment from 60 Minutes about the Trump administration's deportations of Venezuelan men to a detention centre in El Salvador.

From BBC • Mar. 20, 2026

To say that our picture of the Mayan civilization—an interlocking network of kingdoms occupying the Yucatán Peninsula and swaths of present-day Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador from roughly 1000 B.C. to A.D.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026

For a large commission, would he exchange $50,000 in lempiras on the border with El Salvador?

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario