What does "overview" mean?

A brief summary, as of a book or a presentation.

What is a synonym for "overview"?

Common synonyms include: abbreviation, abbreviature, abrege, abridgment, abstract, apercu.

Pronounced //ˈoʊ.vɚˌvjuː//.

//ˈoʊ.vɚˌvjuː// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A brief summary, as of a book or a presentation.
"With that in mind, here is an attempt to provide an overview of what's happening where, as well as a recap on some of the major announcements that have taken place in the past few months."
2
a general summary of a subject wordnet
3
A view from above. rare
4
An inspection. obsolete
"Are we betray’d thus to thy over-view?"

Verb

1
To engage in an overview; to provide a brief summary. transitive
"Gouldner, on the other hand, overviewed all of sociology as it exists in the Western world today, using Talcott Parsons as a "representative" example of its dominant mode of thought."

"Up to this point I have presented an overview of the growth of political unrest in the period."

From over- + view.

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