These verbs mean to cover with water or other liquid, as by a downpour, wave or overflow. Flood is the most general word. It indicates the submergence of something that is not normally under water: A leak in the plumbing flooded the bathroom. The noun flood , in its commonest meaning, refers to an overflowing of dry land by water, as when heavy, concentrated rainfall fills a stream beyond capacity. Hence the verb flood means to fill, overflow, drench or submerge with water.

• During spring rains the river flood ; The river flooded extensive areas of the countryside; A calamitous storm tide flooded the coast; The cyclone flooded the beach cottage and did considerable water damage.

Figuratively, flood may refer to anything that seems to move in a full stream: Sunlight flooded the room. Or it may mean to supply with an excess or abundance of anything: to flood an engine with petrol; They flooded him with advice.

Flood comes from an Old English word. Its collateral adjective, diluvial and its closest synonym, deluge , derive from the Latin word for flood . Deluge may designate a world-wide flood , or one covering a considerable part of the earth’s surface. Specifically, it applies to the rain of forty days and forty nights in the time of Noah ?a cataclysm called either the Deluge or the Flood . In general use, however, where flood focus on the rising flow of water in a swollen stream, deluge stresses the idea of an unremitting downpour. In a literal sense, the verb deluge may imply a drenching with torrents of water: Heavy monsoon rain deluged southern India, flooding the rivers. But the verb is most often used in a figurative sense, indicating any kind of profuse downpour or incessant stream: a candidate deluged with telegrams from well-wishers; an author deluged with offers of honorary degrees.

The verb inundate is synonymous with flood but is far more literary. Inundate goes back in derivation to the Latin word for wave. It is close to deluge in force and meaning, but it differs in its emphasis on a wave-like overflow. To inundate is to overrun with water and cover completely.

• If the dikes of the Netherlands gave way, the sea would inundate the lowlands; A submarine earthquake caused a tidal wave that inundated the peninsula.

In a figurative sense, inundate points to an overflowing abundance: a bookstore inundated with orders for a best-seller; a letterbox inundated with circulars; an M.P. inundated by requests from this constituents. Inundate may also mean to overpower like an onrushing wave: The work piled up and threatened to inundate him.

Swamp is close to inundate but is much more informal. Literally, it means to drench or submerge: The swollen river swamped scores of villages during the flood . To swamp a boat is to sink it by filling it with water: the canoe was nearly swamped by the waves. In a colloquial sense, swamp means to overburden with an unmanageable number or amount of anything: a university swamped with applications; I’m swamped with work. Swamp may also suggest utter defeat or a thoroughgoing rout: The home team swamped the opposition.

Where inundate implies standing water covering a surface, overwhelm may suggest liquid going over and under, around and through. Overwhelm comes from a Middle English word meaning to turn upside down. It calls to mind the overpowering force of a mighty wave that rolls over and buries everything in its path: Streams of lava overwhelmed the village at the foot of the volcano; a lost continent overwhelmed by the sea. Overwhelm is now more commonly used in figurative senses, often referring to abstractions: overwhelmed by grief; His foolhardy accusations opened the floodgates of suspicion, and unreason overwhelmed the land. Whelm is very close to overwhelm but sometimes conveys a greater sense of foreboding. It suggests a being enveloped on all sides by water or by something that covers and suffocates like water: A dust storm whelmed the wagon train; a town whelmed by an earthquake. Whelm is used with telling force by Gerard Manley Kopkins in Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves : "Our evening is over us; our night whelms , whelms , and will end us." Engulf means to swallow up, as in an abyss or bottomless gulf. It suggests a being utterly overwhelmed by waters ?enveloped and buried beyond any hope of escape: The legendary island of Atlantis was engulfed by the sea and disappeared without a trace.