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A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an underseaearthquake or volcanic eruption; often a series of waves (a wave train).
(figurative) A large and generally unstoppable surge.
2009, John Bernard Kelly, An Accidental Atheist: A Memoir, Aquinine books, →ISBN, page 306:
It seemed that what started out as a handful of isolated cases gradually turned into a tsunami of complaints.
2009, Marc Eliot, American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood, Crown Archetype, →ISBN, page 86:
It set off a tsunami of debate among the more esoteric critics, who either loved it or hated it but could not ignore it.
2012, Demetra M. Pappas, The Euthanasia/Assisted-Suicide Debate, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 60:
The next decade would culminate in a tsunami of legislation, civil litigation, and criminal prosecutions in which assisted suicide was both criminalized (as in Michigan) and decriminalized (as in Oregon).
2020 August 26, Nigel Harris, “Comment Special: Catastrophe at Carmont”, in Rail, page 4:
The editor paid a heavy price - he was subsequently compelled to offer a grovelling and humiliating personal apology, following a tsunami of protest.
“tsunami”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03
tsunami: a very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an underseaearthquake or volcanic eruption. Tsunami are usually a series of waves, or wave train.
(oceanography)tsunami(very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption; often a series of waves (a wave train))
2001 [1999], Marco Cisternas V., transl., compiled by Brian F. Atwateret al., Sobreviviendo a un tsunami: lecciones de Chile, Hawai y Japón (U.S. Geological Survey Circular; 1218), translation of Surviving a Tsunami—Lessons From Chile, Hawaii, and Japan (in English), →ISBN, page 8:
Durante el tsunami chileno de 1960, refugiarse en lugares altos y esperar allí salvó muchas vidas, no sólo en Chile, sino también en Onagawa, Japón[…]. En este poblado, las destructivas olas[…]alcanzaron alturas de hasta 4 metros.
Usage notes
Although maremoto and tsunami are sometimes used as synonyms, maremoto refers to the agitation of seawater due to an underwater earthquake (a seaquake) and tsunami refers to the great waves caused by said phenomenon.[1]
Both tsunami and sunami are considered correct spellings by the Royal Spanish Academy, but tsunami is preferred and far more common.[1]
a tsunami; a very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an underseaearthquake or volcanic eruption