flæða

Flæða is an Icelandic verb meaning to flood or overflow. It describes liquids that spill over the edges of containers, rivers that rise and inundate land, or any sudden inflow of water that covers terrain. In technical language, the term is used in hydrology and meteorology to discuss flooding events caused by rain, snowmelt, or glacial processes. The related noun flæði denotes flow or movement of a liquid, while flóð refers to a flood event itself.

The word is used in both everyday speech and scientific writing in Iceland. In Iceland’s landscape, flæða is often employed when discussing river floods and glacial outburst floods, including jökulhlaup, a term for floods triggered by the sudden release of meltwater from a glacier. Flæða can also be used metaphorically to describe a rapid or overwhelming influx of people, goods, or information, though such usage is less common than its physical sense.

Etymology traces the term to Old Norse and other Germanic roots linked to the concept of flowing or flooding; it remains a core part of modern Icelandic for describing water movement and flood risk, as well as infrastructure planning and disaster management.