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widespread flooding

widespread flooding

2 3.0
Water covers a large area and causes damage
  • noun
  • /ˈwaɪdˌsprɛd ˈflʌdɪŋ/
translation icon : inundación generalizada
  • Widespread flooding was also reported in oceanfront areas like Cape May, Wildwood, and Long Beach Island.
  • caused widespread flooding

Examples

  • On Long Island, there was widespread flooding, and hundreds of thousands of customers were without power on Tuesday.

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  • There, unprecedented rainfall caused widespread flooding, wreaking havoc and submerging sections of my hometown.

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  • There were images of widespread flooding throughout the town.

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  • There was widespread flooding and destruction there, and more than 50 people were killed.

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  • Fortunately, though there was widespread flooding, we were able to go nearly everywhere we planned.

    Academic text (2012)
  • The drenching caused widespread flooding.

    Blog text (7)
  • In 1999, Hurricane Floyd caused widespread flooding that put much of eastern North Carolina under several feet of water.

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  • They were saying this was a monster storm that would bring widespread flooding, power outages, and devastation.

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  • Hurricane Sandy, dubbed the Frankenstorm and linked widely to climate change in the U.S. media, has brought widespread flooding and sizeable economic losses.

    Blog text (23)
  • Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding and prompted evacuations across the region.

Synonyms

flood
vswidespread flooding
286 1.0

A large amount of water that covers land that is usually dry

is used for events affecting a whole region rather than a local spot
flooding
vswidespread flooding
136 2.1

A large amount of water covering land that is usually dry

affects a larger region rather than a single local area
deluge
vswidespread flooding
11 6.3

A very heavy rain that causes flooding

often describes damage across a wide area rather than only intense rain
inundation
vswidespread flooding
1 7.7

Flooding of land when water covers areas that are normally dry

tends to imply wider regional impact rather than a single overflow event
waterflood
vswidespread flooding
6.3

A sudden large flow of water that floods land

focuses on affecting a broad region, not just sudden local overflow

Antonyms

178 3.7

A long time with no rain that makes the land very dry

How Extensive

widespread flooding
2 3.0
flooding
136 2.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

widespread + flooding

The phrase is fully compositional: 'widespread' means occurring in many places and 'flooding' means inundation, so a learner who knows both words can infer flooding over a large area. This is a standard, cross-linguistically common modifier+noun combination and follows normal English composition patterns, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Widespread flooding paints a simple picture: water from a river or heavy rain spreads out like a blanket across many fields and houses. So widespread means over a 'large area' and flooding is water covering the land, which is why the phrase means 'flooding that affects a large area'.