inundate

Inundate is a transitive verb with two primary senses. Literally, it means to flood or overflow with water. Figuratively, it means to overwhelm someone or something with a large amount of material, demands, or processes. The word comes from the Latin inundare, from in- “into” plus unda “wave,” and entered English in the medieval period with both hydrological and extended metaphorical uses.

In everyday usage, inundate is typically followed by with: for example, a town can be inundated with floodwaters, or an inbox can be inundated with messages. The term emphasizes abundance to the point of exceeding capacity, and it often conveys a sense of being overwhelmed or burdened. In formal or technical writing, alternatives such as flood, overwhelm, or swamp may be chosen to match the nuance of the situation. While similar to deluge, inundate stresses the volume or intensity of what is incoming rather than merely its speed or force.

Related forms include inundation (the act or result of inundating) and inundated (the past participle adjective). Inundator is a rare noun for one who or that which causes flooding. The word is commonly used in discussions of natural events—such as river floodings and coastal inundations—as well as in metaphorical contexts involving information, tasks, or requests being excessively large in quantity.