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San Salvador

American  
[san sal-vuh-dawr, sahn sahl-vah-thawr] / sæn ˈsæl vəˌdɔr, sɑn ˌsɑl vɑˈðɔr /

noun

  1. Also called Watling Island.  an island in the E central Bahamas: long held to be the first land in the New World sighted by Christopher Columbus 1492. 60 sq. mi. (155 sq. km).

  2. a city in and the capital of El Salvador.


San Salvador British  
/ san salβaˈðɔr, sæn ˈsælvəˌdɔː /

noun

  1. the capital of El Salvador, situated in the SW central part: became capital in 1841; ruined by earthquakes in 1854 and 1873; university (1841). Pop: 1 472 000 (2005 est)

"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

San Salvador Cultural  
  1. Capital of El Salvador and the largest city in the country, located in central El Salvador.


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The city has suffered from recurrent and severe earthquakes.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

I’d flown 35 hours to be here, playing Frogger with San Salvador traffic, dodging motorbikes, arms already open for a hug I’d been planning for years.

From Slate Apr. 12, 2026

Benavides, also a lawyer, spoke with AFP on Sunday, before delivering medicine for Lopez at the Izalco prison farm, 60 kilometers from San Salvador.

From Barron's Mar. 19, 2026

The photo of the plastic chairs on the cover could have been taken in the suburbs of Lima, or San Salvador, or Medellín.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 28, 2025

In part, the reason can be found in neighbourhoods of San Salvador like 10 de Octubre.

From BBC Mar. 27, 2025

San Salvador possesses a rude expressive sculpture of the thirteenth century, a curious image, supposed to have been carved by Nicodemus, and said to have miraculously found its solitary way from Syria across the seas.

From Glories of Spain by Charles W. (William) Wood

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