overhead.

1. The continuing costs of running an organization that are not tied directly to a single product or job.

2. Above someone's head or above a particular place.

3. Resources used to manage a process beyond the work directly producing its result.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• administrative overhead
• fixed overhead

On the page

Administrative overhead absorbed much of the small grant.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, evaluation, business. Commonness: moderately common.