deluge
noun
a great flood of water; inundation; flood.
deluge
American
[del-yooj, -yoozh, del-ooj, -oozh, dih-looj, -loozh]
/ ˈdɛl judʒ, -juʒ, ˈdɛl udʒ, -uʒ, dɪˈludʒ, -ˈluʒ /
noun
-
deluges
plural
-
a great flood of water; inundation; flood.
-
a drenching rain; downpour.
-
anything that overwhelms like a flood.
a deluge of mail.
- Synonyms:
- catastrophe, cataclysm
-
the Deluge. flood.
deluge
1
British
/ ˈdɛljuːdʒ /
noun
-
a great flood of water
-
torrential rain; downpour
-
an overwhelming rush or number
a deluge of requests
verb
-
to flood, as with water; soak, swamp, or drown
-
to overwhelm or overrun; inundate
Deluge
2
British
/ ˈdɛljuːdʒ /
noun
Synonym Usage
See flood.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
delugesimple
-
delugessimple
-
have delugedperfect
-
has delugedperfect
-
am delugingprogressive
-
are delugingprogressive
-
is delugingprogressive
-
have been delugingperfect progressive
-
has been delugingperfect progressive
Past
-
delugedsimple
-
had delugedperfect
-
was delugingprogressive
-
were delugingprogressive
-
had been delugingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
Feeling overwhelmed, like you're underwater? You might be experiencing a deluge — like when you've been given a deluge of homework over vacation: a dozen term papers, two dozen books to read, and a mile-high stack of math problems. The noun deluge is an overwhelming amount of something in general, such as work, people, or questions. Because of its Latin roots, however, in particular it means an overwhelming amount of water. It comes from diluvian, which means flood. The verb deluge similarly means to overwhelm or inundate with something, particularly water. The hurricane deluged the island with rain. A deluge isn't always a bad thing, however. One thing most people would like to be deluged with? Money.
Vocabulary lists containing deluge
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"The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving
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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:
Paris Tsartas, professor of tourism development at Harokopio University in Athens, told AFP the deluge of celebrity endorsements gave Greece a powerful boost as a summer destination -- particularly with the lucrative American market.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Treasury market risks getting worse come September, right as many of the world’s largest companies plan to unleash a new deluge of bond issuance.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Bond yields are at 19-year highs, and investors are blaming the rout on everything from the continuing U.S.-Iran conflict, which has stoked inflation worries, to the deluge of tech-company bonds vying for debt funds’ cash.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
The bellwether cases could now open the floodgates for a deluge of similar lawsuits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The deluge continues as if the Gamemakers are intent on washing us all away.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
"What does water want?" she asks in her book Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge.
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2023
This story is part of a series, After the Deluge, produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
The response to the Crash, according to Adam Tooze in his book The Deluge, was deflationary policies were pursued everywhere.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 4, 2017
"Amongst these records," wrote Rassam, "were found the Chaldean accounts of the Creation and Deluge."
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2015
The story of the Deluge was held to furnish sufficing explanation of the organic remains yielded by the rocks, but failing this, a multitude of fantastic theories were at hand to explain the fossils.
From Pioneers of Evolution from Thales to Huxley With an Intermediate Chapter on the Causes of Arrest of the Movement by Edward Clodd
And the careful, steadily reported, once-a-week format may seem like a dinosaur in this hyper-paced timeline where deluges of information accost us every ticking second.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
Heavy deluges and saturated soils have the potential to cause significant damage to homes, transport infrastructure and food supply.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026
Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate tropical cyclones last week dumped heavy rain across all of Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia.
From Barron's ● Dec. 2, 2025
Shockingly, their analysis suggests the deluges were far larger than the Great Flood, which reshaped much of the Central Valley and Los Angeles Basin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
It may well be asked whether any memory can possibly have survived such a series of deluges.
From The Great Return by Arthur Machen
But the opposite was true: I was deluged with requests for help from people hoping to save their relationships with their friends and loved ones.
From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2026
Legitimately good doctors are deluged with referrals and turn away new patients.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
Utahns have also deluged Cox with thousands of letters in opposition, while regularly convening on the state Capitol with unflattering signs featuring O’Leary and Cox.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2026
When it became clear that the company was replacing its original formula rather than offering New Coke alongside it, its Atlanta headquarters was deluged with angry phone calls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
The court had never been deluged with such crowds before.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
“We got to probably 15 and it kind of started deluging, so the greens got a little softer.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 15, 2023
Massive storms are increasingly deluging California followed by periods of drought that increase the risk of wildfires.
From Reuters ● Jan. 5, 2023
Instead, hundreds of thousands enlisted to fight the Russians, deluging recruiters from the army and the territorial defense force to the degree that many initially had to be turned away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2022
More than 750,000 Rohingya fled their homes in a matter of months, deluging Bangladesh.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2021
On the way into North Hampden, it was all I could do to keep from deluging Henry with questions, but I kept my mouth shut until we got there.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
