Rio de Janeiro

American  

[ree-oh dey zhuh-nair-oh, -neer-oh, juh-, dee, duh, ree-oo di zhi-ney-roo] / ˈri oʊ deɪ ʒəˈnɛər oʊ, -ˈnɪər oʊ, dʒə-, di, də, ˈri ʊ dɪ ʒɪˈneɪ rʊ /

noun

1. a seaport in SE Brazil: former capital.

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Rio de Janeiro British  

/ ˈriːəʊ də dʒəˈnɪərəʊ /

noun

1. a port in SE Brazil, on Guanabara Bay: the country's chief port and its capital from 1763 to 1960; backed by mountains, notably Sugar Loaf Mountain; founded by the French in 1555 and taken by the Portuguese in 1567. Pop: 11 469 000 (2005 est)

2. a state of E Brazil. Capital: Rio de Janeiro. Pop: 14 724 475 (2002). Area: 42 911 sq km (16 568 sq miles)

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Rio de Janeiro Cultural  

1. City in southeastern Brazil on the Atlantic Ocean. Second-largest city in Brazil, after São Paulo; its former capital; and its financial, commercial, transportation, and cultural center.

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Rio is famous as a tourist attraction. Especially popular are its beaches, particularly the Copacabana.

Rio's annual carnival is world-famous.

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, Brazil’s planters mobilized more than one million slaves to settle frontier lands west of Rio de Janeiro, almost entirely to satisfy the North American demand for coffee.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

A judge in Brazil has blocked a project to build a zipline connecting the famous Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro to a nearby hill, Morro da Urca.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

A detective testified the teenager showed him a passport that said he was born in Rio de Janeiro, but he acknowledged the document could have been fake.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

Previous editions of the No Art festival have been held in Barcelona, Miami and Rio de Janeiro.

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2026

And the advocates of development are often from Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, or Brasilia, cities that are thousands of miles away from the Amazon and culturally almost as remote as environmentalists’ cities.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann