El Dorado

[ el duh-rah-doh, -rey- or, Spanish, el daw-rah-thaw for 1, 2; el duh-rey-doh for 3, 4 ]

noun
  1. a legendary treasure city of South America, sought by the early Spanish explorers.

  2. any place offering great wealth.

  1. a city in S Arkansas.

  2. a town in S Kansas.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use El Dorado in a sentence

  • Ingots of gold, pretending to have come from the new Eldorado of Louisiana, were displayed in the shop-windows of Paris.

  • With the exception of this cruel drawback, the new land indeed proved an Eldorado to Victor.

    Rutledge | Miriam Coles Harris

British Dictionary definitions for El Dorado

El Dorado

/ (ɛl dɒˈrɑːdəʊ, Spanish ɛl doˈraðo) /


noun
  1. a fabled city in South America, rich in treasure and sought by Spanish explorers in the 16th century

  2. Also: eldorado any place of great riches or fabulous opportunity

Origin of El Dorado

1
C16: from Spanish, literally: the gilded (place)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for El Dorado

El Dorado

[ (el duh-rah-doh) ]


A place of fabulous wealth, or an opportunity to obtain it. During the gold rush many adventurers believed that California would be their El Dorado. The name comes from the name of a legendary South American city of stupendous riches sought by Spanish conquistadores.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.