Dictionary

inundation en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌɪn.ənˈdeɪ.ʃən/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Old French inundacion (“flood”) (French inondation), from Latin inundatio (“flood”), form of inundō (“to flood, overflow”) (English inundate). By surface analysis, inundat(e) + -ion.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The act of inundating; an overflow; a flood; a rising and spreading of water over grounds.
2. (countable, uncountable) The state of being inundated; flooding.
   • Serious as was the flood damage in England, the bursting of some of the dykes on the coast of Holland resulted in an even more widespread and devastating inundation. 1953 April, “Devastation in Holland”, in Railway Magazine, page 217:
3. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) An overflowing or superfluous abundance; a flood; a great influx.
   • But he did not long abuse my patience, for the objects before him had now put him by all his, and, coming out with that formidable machine of his, he lets the fury loose, and pointing it directly to the pouting-lipt mouth, that bid him sweet defiance in dumb-shew, squeezes in the head, and, driving with refreshed rage, breaks in, and plugs up the whole passage of that soft pleasure-conduit, where he makes all shake again, and put, once more, all within me into such an uproar, as nothing could still but a fresh inundation from the very engine of those flames, as well as from all the springs with which nature floats that reservoir of joy, when risen to its flood-mark. 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
   • There is an inundation of tourists in summer, but in winter the town is almost deserted.

Forms

Relateds

inundate

Translations (39)

nl inundatie (act of inundating) · fi hukuttaminen (act of inundating) · de Überschwemmung (act of inundating) · ro inundare (act of inundating) · uk по́відь (act of inundating) · ar فيضان (act of inundating) · la abluvium (act of inundating) · pl powódź (act of inundating) · gld далан (act of inundating) · pdt Äwaschwamunk (act of inundating) · ota سیلان (act of inundating) · pt inundação (act of inundating) · pl potop (act of inundating) · ru наводне́ние (act of inundating) · it inondazione (act of inundating) · fr inondation (act of inundating) · ccc imujki (act of inundating) · it alluvione (act of inundating) · ka დატბორვა (act of inundating) · uk зато́плення (act of inundating) · cmn 洪水 (act of inundating) · ja 洪水 (act of inundating) · ro inundație (act of inundating) · hu áradás (act of inundating) · fa سیلاب (act of inundating) · ota طوفان (act of inundating) · cs záplava (act of inundating) · bg наводне́ние (act of inundating) · ru пото́п (act of inundating) · cs zaplavení (act of inundating) · ota سیل (act of inundating) · ko 홍수 (act of inundating) · la ēluviō (act of inundating) · uk пото́п (act of inundating) · grc κατακλυσμός (act of inundating) · it allagamento (act of inundating) · uk по́вінь (act of inundating) · de Überflutung (act of inundating) · es inundación (act of inundating)