inundate
Americanverb
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to cover completely with water; overflow; flood; swamp
-
to overwhelm, as if with a flood
to be inundated with requests
Synonym Usage
See flood.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inundatesimple
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inundatessimple
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have inundatedperfect
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has inundatedperfect
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am inundatingprogressive
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are inundatingprogressive
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is inundatingprogressive
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have been inundatingperfect progressive
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has been inundatingperfect progressive
Past
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inundatedsimple
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had inundatedperfect
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was inundatingprogressive
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were inundatingprogressive
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had been inundatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of inundate
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin inundātus, past participle of inundāre “to flood, overflow,” equivalent to in- in- 2 + und(a) “wave” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To inundate means to quickly fill up or overwhelm, just like a flood. Your bathroom could be inundated with water if the pipes burst, and hopefully your inbox is inundated with nice emails on your birthday. Commonly used to refer to a deluge of water, inundate can also refer to an overflow of something less tangible, like information. Right before the holidays, toy stores are often inundated with eager parents scrambling to get the latest action figures and video games. Attempt to read the entire dictionary in one sitting and you'll inundate your mind with vocabulary. But you probably won't remember any of it tomorrow.
Vocabulary lists containing inundate
List 6
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Fast Food Nation
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"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" by Frederick Douglass
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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:
They bring a range of severe weather impacts including destructive winds, torrential flooding rainfall, and storm surges which can inundate coastal areas.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
Worryingly, Jones draws a close analogy with the present-day situation as he expects the deluge of planned IPO issuance this year, in the form of SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI, to inundate the market completely.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 28, 2026
David Joyce, a Seaport Research Partners media analyst, said part of the reason Tubi has been able to capture audiences—especially young people—is because the platform is easy to use and doesn’t inundate viewers with ads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Runner-Up: I also let Instagram totally inundate me with border collie videos.
From Slate ● Dec. 28, 2024
“Can we not inundate this amazing young woman with our masculine vitriol on her birthday?”
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
Checking air quality and staying indoors when smoke inundates the Seattle area has become second nature during Washington’s wildfire season in recent years.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 4, 2024
Some areas of Florida have been hit with flooding as knee-deep water inundates some coastal towns.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2023
Given that reality, a devastating storm that inundates a large number of structures could force the area to consider where it is safe to rebuild — and where it isn’t.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 26, 2022
A second flash flood within two weeks inundates Las Vegas, making 2022 the city’s wettest monsoon season in a decade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2022
She inundates the distant landscape with an undulous sea, but nobody wishes to bathe in it.
From Tales From J?kai by M?r J?kai
"Like digital memes, there may be limits to its attentional staying power, especially as we become more and more inundated with AI slop."
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
As employers are inundated with hundreds of applications, many made with AI or facilitated by it, companies are likewise employing AI tools to screen applicants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
Every time I open TikTok lately, I’m inundated with Kalshi ads beckoning me to bet on “Dancing with the Stars.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
The state’s coastlines have been inundated with high surf for much of the summer, leading to severe erosion at some of the state’s most popular beaches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
For two hours—even after the program ended—the department was inundated with about two thousand calls.
From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow
The storm triggered widespread flooding across southern France on Tuesday, inundating streets and disrupting transport.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Quakes of that magnitude can even pose a risk of tsunami-like waves on the lake itself, with possible heights of more than 30 feet — capable of inundating many areas near the shoreline.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026
In Los Angeles County, a stretch of Topanga Canyon Road, between the Pacific Coast Highway and Grand View Drive, also remains closed after crews responded to at least eight debris flows inundating the road.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
Advertisers kicked off the holiday season even earlier this year, and they are inundating TVs with commercials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025
Water surged across the once-dry floor of the sink, inundating farms and settlements, eventually drowning four hundred square miles of desert and giving birth to a landlocked ocean.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
