Jump To:

• flood
  flood

  noun

  a great flowing or overflowing of water, especially over land not usually submerged.
• Flood
  Flood

  noun

  Henry . 1732–91, Anglo-Irish politician: leader of the parliamentary opposition to English rule

flood

American  

[fluhd] / flʌd /

noun

• floods
  plural

1. a great flowing or overflowing of water, especially over land not usually submerged.

2. any great outpouring or stream.

   a flood of emotions;

   a flood of requests;

   a flood of patients.

3. the Flood, a universal deluge recorded in the Bible, believed to have occurred in the days of Noah.

4. the rise or flowing in of the tide (opposed to ebb).

5. a floodlight.

6. Archaic. a large body of water.

---

verb (used with object)

• floods,
  present (3rd person singular)
• flooded,
  past participle,  past
• flooding
  present participle

1. to overflow in or cover with a flood; fill to overflowing.

   Don't flood the bathtub.

2. to cover or fill, as if with a flood.

   The road was flooded with cars.

   Synonyms:

   deluge, inundate

3. to overwhelm with an abundance of something.

   to be flooded with mail.

   Synonyms:

   deluge, inundate

4. Automotive. to supply too much fuel to (the carburetor), so that the engine fails to start.

5. to floodlight.

verb (used without object)

• floods,
  present (3rd person singular)
• flooded,
  past participle,  past
• flooding
  present participle

1. to flow or pour in or as if in a flood.

2. to rise in a flood; overflow.

3. Pathology.

   1. to suffer uterine hemorrhage, especially in connection with childbirth.

   2. to have an excessive menstrual flow.

flood ¹ British  

/ flʌd /

noun

1. 1. the inundation of land that is normally dry through the overflowing of a body of water, esp a river

   2. the state of a river that is at an abnormally high level (esp in the phrase in flood )

2. a great outpouring or flow

   a flood of words

3. 1. the rising of the tide from low to high water

   2. ( as modifier ) Compare ebb

      the flood tide

4. theatre short for floodlight

5. archaic a large body of water, as the sea or a river

---

verb

1. (of water) to inundate or submerge (land) or (of land) to be inundated or submerged

2. to fill or be filled to overflowing, as with a flood

   the children's home was flooded with gifts

3. (intr) to flow; surge

   relief flooded through him

4. to supply an excessive quantity of petrol to (a carburettor or petrol engine) or (of a carburettor, etc) to be supplied with such an excess

5. (intr) to rise to a flood; overflow

6. (intr)

   1. to bleed profusely from the uterus, as following childbirth

   2. to have an abnormally heavy flow of blood during a menstrual period

Flood ² British  

/ flʌd /

noun

1. Henry . 1732–91, Anglo-Irish politician: leader of the parliamentary opposition to English rule

---

Flood ³ British  

/ flʌd /

noun

1. Old Testament the flood extending over all the earth from which Noah and his family and livestock were saved in the ark. (Genesis 7–8); the Deluge

---

flood Scientific  

/ flŭd /

1. A temporary rise of the water level, as in a river or lake or along a seacoast, resulting in its spilling over and out of its natural or artificial confines onto land that is normally dry. Floods are usually caused by excessive runoff from precipitation or snowmelt, or by coastal storm surges or other tidal phenomena.

2. ◆ Floods are sometimes described according to their statistical occurrence. A fifty-year flood is a flood having a magnitude that is reached in a particular location on average once every fifty years. In any given year there is a two percent statistical chance of the occurrence of a fifty-year flood and a one percent chance of a hundred-year flood.

---

Synonym Usage

Flood, flash flood, deluge, freshet, inundation refer to the overflowing of normally dry areas, often after heavy rains. Flood is usually applied to the overflow of a great body of water, as, for example, a river, although it may refer to any water that overflows an area: a flood along the river; a flood in a basement. A flash flood is one that comes so suddenly that no preparation can be made against it; it is usually destructive, but begins almost at once to subside: a flash flood caused by a downpour. Deluge suggests a great downpouring of water, sometimes with destruction: The rain came down in a deluge. Freshet suggests a small, quick overflow such as that caused by heavy rains: a freshet in an abandoned watercourse. Inundation, a literary word, suggests the covering of a great area of land by water: the inundation of thousands of acres.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• flooder
  noun
• overflood
  verb
• underflood
  verb
• floodable
  adjective
• floodless
  adjective
• floodlike
  adjective
• preflood
  adjective
• unflooded
  adjective
• well-flooded
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• floods
  plural

Participles

• flooding
  present
• flooded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• flood
  simple
• floods
  simple
• have flooded
  perfect
• has flooded
  perfect
• am flooding
  progressive
• are flooding
  progressive
• is flooding
  progressive
• have been flooding
  perfect progressive
• has been flooding
  perfect progressive

Past

• flooded
  simple
• had flooded
  perfect
• was flooding
  progressive
• were flooding
  progressive
• had been flooding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will flood
  simple
• will have flooded
  perfect
• will be flooding
  progressive
• will have been flooding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of flood

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun flod, Old English flōd; cognate with Gothic flōdus, Old High German fluot ( German Flut )

Explanation

A flood is an enormous amount of water. If the street is full of water, it's flooded. Too much of anything can also be called a flood. Whenever it rains and rains and rains, there's the danger of a flood, a type of disaster where water is out of control. Because a flood is so powerful, people use the word when overwhelmed by other things. A top college graduate could be flooded with job offers — that's a good kind of flood. People can also be flooded with emotion. Words with similar meanings are deluge and overflow. Too much — or just a lot — of anything can seem like a flood.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flood Flood floods flooded flooding

More Kelvin waves are expected later this season, and scientists are concerned about whether one could coincide with exceptionally high king tides, a big storm, or both, raising the risks of a coastal flood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

The resulting competition at home keeps prices low, making Chinese goods cheaper abroad and encouraging even more exports to flood the world.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

The living room is the perfect place for guests to sit back and relax thanks to its cozy fireplace and large windows, which allow natural light to flood inside.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, has confirmed he will attend the Pacific climate meeting, after the August 26 Himalayan flood disaster.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

When a free black man named David Walker published a powerful pamphlet in 1829 called Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, the raging flood threatened to break the dam.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

And a Black athlete empowered to stand for Black people is an athlete who should expect to be persecuted, like Curt Flood, whom Kaepernick mentioned.

From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2026

These properties were mapped into a Special Flood Hazard Area, which refers to places that are at risk from flooding from a 100-year flood.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

"They're telling us this is essential... that we need to have these centres in our neighbourhood but they're not saying what it's for," Flood says.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

Kathmandu's Flood Forecasting Division had separately issued a "special notice" warning of a growing lake behind debris left by the landslide.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

In what was one of the most unique aspects of the Great Molasses Flood, two individuals who were victims in real danger of losing their own lives also became two of the most heroic rescuers.

From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler

Dozens of public buildings including schools, health clinics and hospitals have been wrecked by the floods.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

Residents in Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, have faced four major floods in the past six years.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

During emergencies, those facilities are converted into places of refuge from fires, floods or other disasters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

"My flat's car park was under water -- it never floods, even in 2011" when hundreds of people died across Thailand in heavy deluges, he said, asking AFP not to publish his family name.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

It floods me with something I can’t explain.

From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell

While comments congratulating the couple flooded Wilkins’ Instagram, comments on their podcast appearance sang a different tune, with one user saying, “Why is the FBI director on a podcast with his girlfriend?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

A friend in her 80s slipped on the stairs to her flooded basement and fell, breaking two posterior ribs and injuring her shoulder.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Earlier this year, women shoppers flooded Levi’s e-commerce website with searches for the 517 jeans, a men’s style, after they were featured in “Love Story.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

The ancient stone Bessom Bridge flooded nearly 50 years ago when Wimbleball Reservoir was created at Exmoor National Park in Somerset.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

He lay on the longed-for ground, flooded with ecstatic feelings of triumph and well-being.

From "Abel's Island" by William Steig

Coastal communities are beginning to assess the damage from waves and flooding as Southern California braces for more potentially destructive conditions from a ‘coastally trapped Kelvin wave.’

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

As a result, the complaint says, instead of snow in the winter, Boulder gets more “high-intensity, short-duration rainfall events” that overwhelm its drainage systems and cause flooding.

From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2026

The plaintiffs say they have suffered losses amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars from wildfires, flooding and other weather extremes and are seeking compensation.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

Prince William was visiting the area to learn about how communities have been affected by recent flooding and what measures were being taken by local authorities and other agencies to mitigate future incidents.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

The gut had disappeared under the foot of water flooding the yard, bringing with it the same floating dump heap we had seen swirling about the front yard.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

Related Words

• choke
• deluge
• drown
• engulf
• fill
• flow
• overflow
• overwhelm
• rush
• saturate
• swamp
• sweep