Flooded

How to spell flooded

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce flooded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does flooded mean?

1. verbPast tense of flood: covered, filled or submerged by an overflow of water.
2. verbPast tense of flood used figuratively: overwhelmed by a very large quantity of something arriving at once.

Flooded in a sentence

• Heavy rain flooded the basement overnight.

• The offer flooded the call centre with enquiries.

• The burst pipe flooded the entire kitchen floor.

• The announcement flooded her inbox with replies.

Where does flooded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'flood', which descends from the Old English noun 'flod', meaning a flowing of water, a tide, or a great body of water. That noun belonged to a wider Germanic family, related to Dutch 'vloed' and German 'Flut', and ultimately to the same ancient root that gave us 'flow' and 'float'. For centuries 'flood' was mainly a noun, naming both Noah's deluge and the rising sea tide; the verb sense, 'to cover or fill with water', grew up alongside it and gave the regular '-ed' forms. The single 'o' was doubled to 'oo' in writing to mark the long vowel of the older pronunciation, even though the modern sound has shortened to a short 'u', which is exactly why the spelling can feel mismatched. The figurative meaning, being overwhelmed by a sudden rush of letters, requests or feelings, was a natural extension once water imagery was firmly established.

How the word is built

• flood (Old English flod: a flowing, a flow of water)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)