Overdefine

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To define too rigidly, or in too much depth. transitive

    "Most students want to overdefine every flower and leaf. In the assignment above, I spoke of “the essence of flowers.” If you overdefine and explain every petal, you will lose the sense of softness and mystery."

Example

More examples

"Most students want to overdefine every flower and leaf. In the assignment above, I spoke of “the essence of flowers.” If you overdefine and explain every petal, you will lose the sense of softness and mystery."

Etymology

From over- + define.

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