floodplain
flood·plain/ˈflʌdˌpleɪn/noun
floodplain is spelled F-L-O-O-D-P-L-A-I-N: 10 letters and 2 syllables (flood·plain). It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “flood plain vs floodplain” about 10 times a month (Bing, United States). As a noun, floodplain means “A low-lying plain adjacent to a river subject to flooding during periods of high rainfall or at high tide” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of floodplain is floodplains.
How many letters and syllables are in floodplain?
| Letters | 10: F-L-O-O-D-P-L-A-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: flood·plain |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 40,267th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is floodplain?
Floodplain appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce floodplain?
- /ˈflʌdˌpleɪn/
Floodplain has 2 syllables, split flood·plain in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-floodplain.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with floodplain
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: flood plain (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of floodplain
- floodplains plural
- flood plain
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does floodplain mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A low-lying plain adjacent to a river subject to flooding during periods of high rainfall or at high tide.
Near-synonyms: bottomland, bottomlands
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Floodplain in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a plain formed by the deposition of flooding:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lit majeur |
| German | Flussaue, Aue, Au, Überschemmungsgebiet |
| Portuguese | várzea, vargem |
| Spanish | terreno inundable, llanura aluvial inundable, vega inundable |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does floodplain come from?
From flood + plain.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).