Definition

1. Proper Noun:
   • The Deluge, the Great Flood: A cataclysmic, world-covering flood sent by divine power as a judgment, most famously the one described in the Biblical book of Genesis and found in the mythologies of many cultures.

Usage Examples

• Proper Noun:
  • Truyền thuyết kể về trận hồng thủy nhấn chìm cả thế giới. (The legend tells of the Great Flood that submerged the entire world.)
  • Câu chuyện Noah và chiếc tàu của ông là một câu chuyện về hồng thủy. (The story of Noah and his ark is a story about the Deluge.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used metaphorically to describe an overwhelming, destructive force or a very large quantity.
  • Cô ấy khóc như hồng thủy. (She cried a flood of tears. / Literally: She cried like the Great Flood.)

Variants and Related Words

• Lũ lụt (n): Flood; a general term for flooding as a natural disaster, not necessarily mythical or world-ending.
  • Lũ lụt đã gây thiệt hại nghiêm trọng cho thành phố. (The flood caused serious damage to the city.)
• Đại hồng thủy (n): The Great Deluge; an emphatic variant with the same meaning as "hồng thủy."

Synonyms

• The Deluge
• The Great Flood
• The Biblical Flood

Related Idioms

• Hồng thủy is itself a culturally embedded term and is used in fixed expressions like "trận hồng thủy" (the cataclysm of the Flood) or metaphorically as shown in Advanced Usage.

1. The Deluge, the Flood