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• flood
  flood

  noun

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

  noun

  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

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.

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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

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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. 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

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Flood ³ British  

/ flʌd /

noun

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

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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.

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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

Not only is the building within a flood zone, but many residents weren’t paying their HOA fees, leaving the HOA underfunded and potentially unable to pay for structural repairs if there was an emergency.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

The flood damage, coupled with a Depression-era unemployed work force, put the river into the hands of federal flood control programs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

As bootleg versions of an experimental drug from Eli Lilly flood the market, regulators are trying to curb supply.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

In 2023, a glacial lake outburst flood in Sikkim killed at least 70 people and caused widespread damage to roads, bridges and hydropower projects.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

He saw the permafrost walls of ponds and lakes crumble and flood.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

"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

Ratner said the branch is a reference to the story in the Torah of Noah sending out a dove during the Great Flood and returning with an olive branch.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

“Buckle up,” added John Flood, head of Americas equities execution services at Goldman Sachs.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026

Devastating as the destruction was, it would be the human stories and the human suffering that would best define what would become known as the Great Molasses Flood.

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

But on some occasions, he said, he had been told that records run by homes of different religious orders were "destroyed in floods, fires... only for it later to transpire that they have been preserved".

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

Not so those February floods in Los Angeles itself.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

North-eastern Spain has been hit by torrential rain and flash floods, leaving one person dead and causing widespread disruption across the region.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Becerra recalled that during his 24 years in Congress there was widespread, bipartisan support for sending federal assistance to disaster areas, including areas devastated by hurricanes on the Eastern Seaboard or floods in the South.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

The other two are now on the scene, the door opens and the light floods over us.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

Thousands of people then flooded across the border fence and swam around the ocean barriers.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

The company also flooded cities like Dayton, where drivers can pass three Dollar Generals before reaching a Walmart superstore.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

The later study found that water reached elevations of 3.5 meters locally and flooded as far as 150 meters inland.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026

But the facility may still face challenges to profitability, the organisation said, including flooded mine shafts and the depletion of higher-grade ore deposits.

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

“We hitched a ride when our house flooded, like you.”

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

A garden hose had been overflowing the pool above the hillside for an “unknown amount of time” when it caused the flooding and subsequent collapse, according to the Fire Department’s 5 p.m. update.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

Within a year of moving in, he wanted to sell, because multiple issues — from water shutoffs to flooding in common areas — made living there difficult.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

This year’s El Niño is on track to be the strongest in at least 70 years, with the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization warning of flooding, drought and extreme heat throughout the winter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

While wetter weather could help drought recovery, periods of heavy rain could also bring a risk of flooding.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

He turns as if to memorize the scene, sunlight flooding the pasture, shining through towering trees and over growing crops.

From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Related Words

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