Deluge

How to spell deluge

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce deluge

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deluge mean?

1. nounA heavy, overwhelming downpour of rain or a great flood of water.
2. nounAn overwhelming quantity of something arriving all at once.
3. verbTo flood with water or to overwhelm with a large quantity of something.

Deluge in a sentence

• noun

  The sudden deluge left the car park under half a metre of water.

• noun

  The announcement triggered a deluge of complaints to the helpline.

• verb

  A burst main can deluge the entire basement within minutes.

• noun

  Forecasters warned that the deluge would burst the riverbanks by morning.

• noun

  After the interview she faced a deluge of job offers.

• verb

  Angry customers can deluge the office with calls after a price rise.

Where does deluge come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word travels back to the Latin diluvium, meaning a great flood, which was formed from the verb diluere, 'to wash away'. That verb combined the prefix di- (a form of dis-, meaning 'away' or 'apart') with luere, 'to wash', so the literal idea was of water washing everything away. Latin used diluvium especially for the biblical Flood, the catastrophic inundation of the earth. English borrowed the word in the 1300s through Old French deluge, keeping the French spelling that softened the Latin -v- into the -g- sound we now hear. The same luere root, meaning 'to wash', also lurks inside 'dilute' and 'ablution', which is a useful reminder that a deluge is fundamentally about water in overwhelming quantity.

How the word is built

• de- (from Latin di-, away)
• lu (from luere, to wash)
• -ge (noun ending via French)