flood
/flʌd/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.34 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An overflow of a large amount of water (usually disastrous) from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water.
noun
A large number or quantity of anything appearing more rapidly than can easily be dealt with.
noun
A floodlight.
Example Sentences
- "a covenant never to destroy the earth again by flood"
- "Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations."
- "Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge."
- "China's Ministry of Water Resources Saturday warned that floods are expected to hit the country and called on relevant departments to make preparation. Heavy rains have hit parts of southern, eastern and central China since Wednesday, pushing water levels in some rivers well above warning lines, the ministry said. China entered its flood season on Saturday, four days earlier than previous years, and the country may suffer from more and stronger rain as well as floods with more extreme weather forecast for the flood season, the ministry warned."
- "a flood of complaints"
- "Deregulation of financial markets laid the groundwork for the subprime crisis in the United States, while a badly designed euro contributed to the debt crisis in Greece, and the Schengen system of open borders made it difficult to control the flood of refugees in Europe."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)-der. Proto-Germanic *flōduz Proto-West Germanic *flōdu Old English flōd Middle English flod English flood Inherited from Middle English flod, from Old English flōd, from Proto-West Germanic *flōdu, from Proto-Germanic *flōduz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)-. Cognate with Scots flude, fluid, Saterland Frisian Floud, Dutch vloed, German Flut, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish flod, Icelandic flóð, and Gothic 𐍆𐌻𐍉𐌳𐌿𐍃 (flōdus).