inundate

verb

in·​un·​date ˈi-(ˌ)nən-ˌdāt 

inundated; inundating

transitive verb

1

: overwhelm

was inundated with phone calls

2

: to cover with a flood : overflow

inundation

ˌi-(ˌ)nən-ˈdā-shən 

noun

inundator

ˈi-(ˌ)nən-ˌdā-tər 

noun

inundatory

i-ˈnən-də-ˌtȯr-ē 

adjective

Did you know?

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.

Synonyms of inundate

• flood
• engulf
• overwhelm
• drown

Examples of inundate in a Sentence

Rising rivers could inundate low-lying areas.

water from the overflowing bathtub inundated the bathroom floor

Recent Examples on the Web

In southern Guangxi, tropical storm floods have inundated cities, forced about 130,000 evacuations and left families stranded without power or drinking water. — Ken Moritsugu, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026

The marketing industry has been inundated with stats on the rise of zero-click search, the behavior where users get their answers directly from a search results page without ever visiting the source. — Kristen Dolan, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026

In the 1985 book No Sense of Place, the media theorist Joshua Meyrowitz observed that television and other electronic media inundated Americans with new kinds of information about their prospective leaders. — Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026

Social media video showed snakes poking their heads above the muddy water inundating the village. — Sylvie Zhuang, CNN Money, 7 July 2026

Word History

Etymology

Latin inundatus, past participle of inundare, from in- + unda wave — more at water

First Known Use

1590, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for inundate

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate
• angulate

Kids Definition

inundate

verb

in·​un·​date ˈin-(ˌ)ən-ˌdāt 

inundated; inundating

1

: to cover with a flood : deluge entry 1

2

: overwhelm sense 2

inundated with email

inundation

ˌin-(ˌ)ən-ˈdā-shən 

noun