Inundate

//ˈɪn.ənˌdeɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To cover with large amounts of water; to flood.

    "The Dutch would sometimes inundate the land to hinder the Spanish army."

  2. 2
    fill or cover completely, usually with water wordnet
  3. 3
    To overwhelm.

    "The agency was inundated with phone calls."

  4. 4
    fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
delugedelugefloodswampbefloodafflict

Example

More examples

"The Dutch would sometimes inundate the land to hinder the Spanish army."

Etymology

First attested in 1623; borrowed from Latin inundātus, the perfect passive participle of inundō (“to flood, overflow”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- + undō (“to overflow, wave”), from unda (“wave”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.