Overall
adj, adv, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A garment worn over other clothing to protect it; a coverall or boiler suit. A garment, for manual labor or for casual wear, often made of a single piece of fabric, with long legs and a bib upper, supported from the shoulders with straps, and having several large pockets and loops for carrying tools. British
- 2 (usually plural) work clothing consisting of denim trousers (usually with a bib and shoulder straps) wordnet
- 3 A garment, worn for manual labor, with an integral covering extending to the chest, supported by straps. US, in-plural
- 4 a loose protective coverall or smock worn over ordinary clothing for dirty work wordnet
- 1 All-encompassing, all around.
"We believe also that a controlled economy cannot be understood without some overall view of the controlling institutions: hence our short studies — shorter by far than the original drafts — of the central administration."
- 1 involving only main features wordnet
- 2 including everything wordnet
- 1 Generally; with everything considered. not-comparable
"Overall, there is not enough evidence to form a clear conclusion."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"This vowel change has much to do with the overall accent pattern assigned to each word."
Etymology
From Middle English overall, overal, from Old English ofer eall, ofer ealle (“over all”), equivalent to over + all. Compare Saterland Frisian oural, uural (“everywhere”), West Frisian oeral (“everywhere”), Dutch overal (“everywhere”), German Low German overall, överall (“everywhere; all over”), German überall (“all over; everywhere”), Danish overalt (“everywhere”), Swedish överallt (“everywhere; overall”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.