A deluge is an overwhelming flood of water, or anything else that comes in such huge quantities that it feels impossible to handle. When heavy rains cause a river to overflow and water rushes through streets and into buildings, that's a deluge. The word means a sudden, powerful surge that seems unstoppable, far exceeding normal amounts.

The Bible describes a great deluge that covered the earth, which Noah survived by building an ark. Today, meteorologists might warn of a deluge when storms are expected to dump enormous amounts of rain in a short time.

But deluge isn't limited to water. A popular author might receive a deluge of fan mail after publishing a new book, with thousands of letters arriving faster than anyone could possibly read them. A teacher might face a deluge of questions after announcing a complicated assignment. When you're deluged with homework from every class at once, you feel buried under more work than seems manageable.

The word emphasizes that overwhelming, almost drowning feeling, whether you're facing actual floodwaters or just trying to answer fifty emails before dinner.

As a verb, to deluge means to flood or overwhelm: a storm can deluge a town, or messages can deluge your inbox.