deluge

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈdɛljudʒ/ UK /ˈdɛljuːdʒ/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a great flood or overwhelming flow of something

A deluge of complaints buried the support team within hours.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a great flood or... flood inundation torrent downpour cascade spate overflow

Opposites

drought trickle drip

Word family

Derived forms delugeddeluging

Related forms diluvial antediluvian dilute

Simplified etymology

Deluge entered late Middle English from an Old French variant of diluve, “flood,” ultimately from Latin diluvium. The Latin noun is related to diluere, “wash away.”

Etymology

From Old French deluge, from Latin diluvium ('a flood'), from diluere ('to wash away'), from di- ('apart') + luere ('to wash').

diluvium Latin luere Latin *lewh₃- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# deluge

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈdɛljudʒ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈdɛljuːdʒ/

## Meanings
1. a great flood or overwhelming flow of something

## Examples
- A deluge of complaints buried the support team within hours.

## Synonyms
- flood
- inundation
- torrent
- downpour
- cascade
- spate
- overflow

## Antonyms
- drought
- trickle
- drip

## Derived Forms
- deluged
- deluging

## Related Forms
- diluvial
- antediluvian
- dilute

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: diluvium
- Root: luere
- Root: *lewh₃-

## Etymology
From Old French deluge, from Latin diluvium ('a flood'), from diluere ('to wash away'), from di- ('apart') + luere ('to wash').

## AI Etymology
Deluge is from Old French deluge, from Latin diluvium ('a flood'), from diluere ('to wash away'), from di- ('apart') + luere ('to wash'). Important recorded forms include diluvium (Latin), luere (Latin), and *lewh₃- (Proto-Indo-European). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers a great flood or overwhelming flow of something. The wider family includes derived forms such as deluged and deluging and related words such as diluvial, antediluvian, and dilute.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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