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:
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
Mr Weston said "prolonged wet weather meant further rain had nowhere to go other than to inundate our ageing and fragile sewer network".
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2025
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
The scene switches to a rehearsal, in which Isakovic inundates her with notes on a structured improvisation, demanding “relaxed twitching” and insisting she crawl into the audience.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
Some areas of Florida have been hit with flooding as knee-deep water inundates some coastal towns.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2023
On March 15, brown floodwater inundates a large swath of land.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2023
Gorki inundates one’s consciousness with these human fortunes and misfortunes of his tenement basement.
From The Invisible Censor by Hackett, Francis
On visiting day, Youngelson was inundated with appreciation from their families.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
A section of Sunset Boulevard could continue to be closed for days as crews repair a ruptured trunk line that inundated West Hollywood with about 17 million gallons of water last week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
But last week, the replies were inundated with complaints that Letterboxd had defected to the corporate dark side, along with fearful pleas for the platform’s owners to reconsider.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
"AI slop" refers to the flood of AI-generated text, video and audio content that has inundated social media in recent years.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
For two hours—even after the program ended—the department was inundated with about two thousand calls.
From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow
A poisonous river of a stinking yellow liquid rushed downhill, inundating homes and fields, including the one where she grew corn to feed her eight children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
In Toshima village, some residents have been sleep-deprived and tired, authorities said, as they urged the media to stop inundating locals with queries.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2025
During those storms, floodwaters surged into the Tulare Lake Basin, submerging roads, breaking through levees and inundating farmlands, where workers rushed to move equipment to high ground.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2025
Expect college recruiters to be inundating him with offers this spring.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 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
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.
