deluge

American  

[del-yooj, -yoozh, del-ooj, -oozh, dih-looj, -loozh] / ˈdɛl yudʒ, -yuʒ, ˈdɛl udʒ, -uʒ, dɪˈludʒ, -ˈluʒ /

noun

1. a great flood of water; inundation; flood.

2. a drenching rain; downpour.

3. anything that overwhelms like a flood.

   a deluge of mail.

   Synonyms:

   catastrophe, cataclysm

4. the Deluge. flood.

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verb (used with object)

deluged, deluging

1. to flood; inundate.

2. to overrun; overwhelm.

   She was deluged with congratulatory letters.

deluge ¹ British  

/ ˈdɛljuːdʒ /

noun

1. a great flood of water

2. torrential rain; downpour

3. an overwhelming rush or number

   a deluge of requests

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verb

1. to flood, as with water; soak, swamp, or drown

2. to overwhelm or overrun; inundate

Deluge ² British  

/ ˈdɛljuːdʒ /

noun

1. another name for the Flood

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Related Words

See flood.

Other Word Forms

• undeluged adjective

Etymology

Origin of deluge

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dīluvium “flood,” equivalent to dīluv-, base of dīluere “to wash away, dissolve” ( dī- di ² + -luere, combining form of lavere “to wash”) + -ium -ium

Example Sentences

As "AI slop" floods the internet, efforts are mounting to stem an online deluge of shoddy images and videos made using increasingly advanced tech tools.

From Barron's

Akira reined him in, hoping the deluge would stop, but it didn’t.

From Literature

Google recently started rolling out new features to help with the deluge, including the new AI Inbox.

From The Wall Street Journal

Heavy rains on Thursday sent a deluge of water flowing through some parts of the eastern state of Victoria, which is still battling 10 major bushfires.

From Barron's

The sight of the newborn and her mother being winched to safety by helicopter amid the deluged landscape became one of the defining images of the Mozambique floods of 2000 – the country's worst ever.

From BBC

Related Words

• douse
• drench
• engulf
• flood
• overflow
• overrun
• overwhelm
• soak
• submerge
• swamp