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
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Water Hazard: Words for Too Much Moisture
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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:
But moderators who were historically more lenient toward promotional posts have started pushing back after a deluge of Reddit posts designed to manipulate AI search results.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
The deluge comes after a series of storms swept through Japan and neighbouring countries this week, in what's been forecast to be an unusually active typhoon season.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Rather, the fuel — overwhelmingly purchased legally in the United States — arrives at seaports and border crossings via ships, trains and trucks, part of the daily deluge of imported hydrocarbons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
There’s also been pressure building within the broader bond market as Big Tech “hyperscalers” increasingly issue a deluge of debt to help fund the artificial-intelligence buildout.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 26, 2026
The earth barely had a chance to absorb the rainwater before the next deluge.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
That's how immersive The Deluge is, an ambitious new novel by Stephen Markley.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2023
Deluge be damned, Stutzmann turned in one of the most honestly moving Tchaikovsky Sixths that I have heard.
From New York Times ● Aug. 5, 2022
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
Despite its fragility and scale, it holds its own in a room themed around the conflicts of the 1970s opposite Philip Guston’s magisterial painting Deluge II, made at the same time.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 16, 2019
Josephus defended the Noachian Deluge on the sole ground that an account of it was held by the Chaldeans, never pretending that the Chaldean account was taken from the Jewish record.
From The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets by Richard B. Westbrook
Monsoon rains paired with two rare tropical storm systems, sometimes known in the region as cyclones, dumped record deluges across Sri Lanka, and parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.
From Barron's ● Dec. 3, 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
This means the increased risk of flooding, with ground becoming saturated by persistent winter rainfall and drainage systems overwhelmed by summer deluges.
From BBC ● May 23, 2024
Right now, dating apps are falling out of favor with those treasured demographics, not least thanks to the prevalence of catfishing impostors and nonstop deluges of fake dating options.
From Slate ● May 17, 2024
It was a tropical shower—one of those deluges of the skies, and in a few moments the little band was flooded with water.
From The Second War with England, Vol. 2 of 2 by Joel Tyler Headley
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
Utah officials have complained that the state has been deluged with constitutional challenges.
From Slate ● May 4, 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
For seven days and nights the Putnam was deluged and hammered.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
Kitson Yang asked his colleagues during a recent legislative session while holding up printed pictures of the tourists deluging parts of the city.
From New York Times ● May 9, 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
Wednesday evening, up to 2 to 4 inches of rain fell in less than two hours — deluging Washington, D.C.'s northern suburbs.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 10, 2022
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.
