Overthink

verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To think about; think over archaic

    "But when I dred that wou'd not work, I overthought me of a Wile How I might at my leisure lurk, My graceless Guardain to beguile."

  2. 2
    To think or analyze too much.

    "Don't overthink the problem. It's not that difficult."

  3. 3
    to spend to much time considering something and thus reach the wrong conclusion wordnet
  4. 4
    To think too highly (of); overestimate rare

    "So to think of self as not to overthink — to think of yourself with sober, moral judgment."

Synonyms

All synonyms
afterthinkagitatebethinkcall to mindchewchew over

Example

More examples

"Try not to overthink everything."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English *overthenken, *overthenchen (compare Middle English overthinken (“to grieve; have regrets; be sorry; be anxious”)), from Old English oferþenċan (“to think over; consider”), equivalent to over- + think.

Etymology 2

From over- + think.

Related phrases

think aboutthink over

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