Deluge
//ˈdɛl.ju(d)ʒ// name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A great flood or rain.
"The deluge continued for hours, drenching the land and slowing traffic to a halt."
- 2 the rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto normally dry land wordnet
- 3 An overwhelming amount of something; anything that overwhelms or causes great destruction.
"The rock concert was a deluge of sound."
- 4 a heavy rain wordnet
- 5 A system for flooding or drenching a space, container, or area with water in an emergency to prevent or extinguish a fire.
"deluge system, deluge gun, deluge set"
Show 1 more definition
- 6 an overwhelming number or amount wordnet
Verb
- 1 To flood with water. transitive
"Some areas were deluged with a month's worth of rain in 24 hours."
- 2 fill or cover completely, usually with water wordnet
- 3 To overwhelm. transitive
"After the announcement, they were deluged with requests for more information."
- 4 charge someone with too many tasks wordnet
- 5 fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 The flood taking place in the story of Noah found in the Bible (Genesis) and Qur'an.
Example
More examples"The deluge was a notable first experiment in baptism which washed away the sins (and sinners) of the world."
Etymology
From Middle English deluge, from Old French deluge, alteration of earlier deluvie, from Latin dīluvium, from dīluō (“wash away”). Doublet of diluvium.
Related phrases
More for "deluge"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.