Definition

1. Noun:
   • The Great Flood (Biblical/legendary): A massive, catastrophic flood sent by a deity or occurring in mythology, often as divine punishment, most famously the story of Noah's Ark in the Bible.
   • A great, destructive flood: Used metaphorically to describe any exceptionally large and devastating flood event.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Truyền thuyết kể về trận hồng thuỷ nhấn chìm cả thế giới. (Legends tell of the Great Flood that submerged the entire world.)
  • Cơn bão gây ra trận hồng thuỷ, cuốn trôi nhiều làng mạc. (The storm caused a great flood, sweeping away many villages.)

Advanced Usage

• "hồng thuỷ" as a metaphor: Often used in literature and formal speech to symbolize overwhelming disaster, divine wrath, or a complete cleansing/rebirth.
  • Cuộc khủng hoảng kinh tế như một trận hồng thuỷ. (The economic crisis was like a great flood.)

Variants and Related Words

• Lũ lụt (n): Flood, flooding (general term, not necessarily cataclysmic).
• Đại hồng thuỷ (n): The Great Flood (emphasizes the scale, synonymous with the primary meaning).

Synonyms

• Trận lụt lớn: A great flood.
• Nạn lụt: Flood disaster.

Related Idioms

• (Không common phrasal verbs in Vietnamese for this term)
• Sóng thần (tsunami) is a different, specific natural phenomenon but can cause similar catastrophic flooding.