Overact

//ˌəʊvəɹˈækt// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To act in an exaggerated manner.

    "He overacted his part."

  2. 2
    exaggerate one's acting wordnet
  3. 3
    To act upon, or influence, unduly. obsolete, transitive

    "The hope of inheritance overacts them."

Synonyms

All synonyms
hamham it upact a partaffectassumecarry too far

Example

More examples

"If governments overact and become oppressive, the terrorists will have won, for their theory is that repression will eventually lead to revolution."

Etymology

From over- + act.

More for "overact"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.