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In the summer of 1993, record rains in the Midwest caused the Mississippi River to overflow its banks, break through levees, and inundate the entire countryside; such an inundation hadn't been seen for at least a hundred years. By contrast, the Nile River inundated its entire valley every year, bringing the rich black silt that made the valley one of the most fertile places on earth. (The inundations ceased with the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970.) Whenever a critical issue is being debated, the White House and Congressional offices are inundated with phone calls and emails, just as a town may be inundated with complaints when it starts charging a fee for garbage pickup.
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Examples of inundate in a Sentence
Clay Risen, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Sep. 2023
On the other side of the world in early August, China, arguably the cradle of civilization in the East, was inundated with rain in the region surrounding the capital of Beijing.
—Win McCormack, The New Republic, 14 Sep. 2023
While the musical dog whistle’s echos fade back into the cacophony of constant and scary, angry, accusatory noise we are all inundated with, the song that tells a simple story of humans trying to move forward remains.
—cleveland, 14 Sep. 2023
Home to fewer than 15,000 full-time residents, the town was then inundated by fans of the film in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
—Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 13 Sep. 2023
Satellite imagery taken Wednesday revealed how flooding inundated Libya’s port city of Derna in the country’s east, blasting through dams, drowning entire neighborhoods and cutting off roads.
—Washington Post Staff, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2023
August 31, 2023 Flooding from Idalia also inundated streets in McClellanville, about 40 miles north of Charleston along the South Carolina coast.
—Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 31 Aug. 2023
The catastrophic storm surges inundating Florida’s Big Bend region during Hurricane Idalia could sweep some of the area’s 1,000 manatees inland, potentially marooning the animals when the deluge diminishes.
—Jo Craven McGinty, WSJ, 31 Aug. 2023
During Hurricane Ian, for instance, southwest Florida’s Lee County was inundated with frantic 911 calls from people drowning in their homes, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in a news briefing.
—Reis Thebault, Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2023
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inundate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Inundate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inundate. Accessed 25 Sep. 2023.
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inundate
verb
More from Merriam-Webster on inundate
Nglish: Translation of inundate for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of inundate for Arabic Speakers
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