MEANING
1. To affect someone with more emotion, information, or demands than they can manage.
2. To defeat or overpower someone or something by superior force or numbers.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- overwhelm with grief
- overwhelm with detail
On the page
The scale of the task overwhelmed her until it was divided into smaller stages.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- overwhelm
- Past tense
- overwhelmed
- Past participle
- overwhelmed
- Present participle
- overwhelming
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- overwhelm
- Present continuous
- am/is/are overwhelming
- Present perfect
- have/has overwhelmed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been overwhelming
- Past
- overwhelmed
- Past continuous
- was/were overwhelming
- Past perfect
- had overwhelmed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been overwhelming
- Future
- will overwhelm
- Future continuous
- will be overwhelming
- Future perfect
- will have overwhelmed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been overwhelming
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: overwhelm; overwhelms; overwhelmed; overwhelmed; overwhelming 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. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: overwhelms.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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