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
News and social media feeds inundate us with dramatic scenes of immigration policing.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2025
It also said emergency services were on standby at Greatford, near Stamford, to monitor the West Glen River, which it said threatened to inundate 49 properties in the area.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2025
“Can we not inundate this amazing young woman with our masculine vitriol on her birthday?”
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
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
During heavy rain events, the water inundates the island.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 17, 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
An August sun inundates with its blinding light the desert expanse of heather, whose silence is disturbed only by the sharp chirp of the grasshopper, or the low moan of the gale.
From The Carlovingian Coins Or The Daughters of Charlemagne. A Tale of the Ninth Century by Eugène Sue
A GNS Science review of the 2011 disaster reported a 96% survival rate among people in inundated areas and highlighted the importance of education and evacuation procedures.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
The mine was beneath an atmospheric river that inundated much of Chile, a rare occurrence that meteorologists said was consistent with a strengthening El Niño.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
“You can’t go to Boyle Heights without being inundated with flies, and the streets are inundated with rats,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Tracy Sweetland-Hodges, who works for the charity, said demand had "doubled if not tripled" and its two support workers were "inundated every morning with a long list of referrals from across the borough".
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Odessa established itself as a distribution point for oil field equipment and experienced more growth in a month than it had in ten years, inundated by men who were called simply boomers.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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
I kind of designed my content to be able to make it easily because I feel like my approach is just inundating you with Kev.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2025
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
As the storm brushed past Hong Kong, steep waves crashed into land, inundating coastal areas, alongside powerful winds and rain, leaving more than 60 people injured.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 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.
