Excerpt from Flood, the Definition and Meaning - Bible Dictionary

Flood, the

Terminology. The Genesis flood is denoted in the Old Testament by the technical Hebrew term mabbul [לובמ] (etymology uncertain; perhaps from the root ybl, "to flow, to stream"). All thirteen Old Testament instances of this word refer to the Genesis flood; all of them are found in the Book of Genesis except Psalm 29:10. Occurrences in the flood narrative are usually associated with mayim [ימ], "waters." The Septuagint and the New Testament consistently employ the Greek term kataklysmos [κατακλυσμός] ("flood, deluge") for this event (four times in the New Testament, plus once using the related verb kataklyzo [κατακλύζω] ["flood, inundate"] 2 Peter 3:6 ).