Overwhelming

//ˌəʊvəˈ(h)wɛlmɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A situation of being overwhelmed.

    "They have centuries of premodern experience in coping with being overwhelmed in multiple ways—not only by God, but also by other overwhelmings that have always been part of the human condition, such as disease, famine, war […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of overwhelm form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Overpowering, staggering, or irresistibly strong.

    "The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades."

  2. 2
    Very great or intense.
  3. 3
    Extreme.
Adjective
  1. 1
    very strong; urgently felt wordnet
  2. 2
    so strong as to be irresistible wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
overpoweringabsoluteadducibleadmissibleagitatingamazing

Example

More examples

"The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority."

Etymology

By surface analysis, overwhelm + -ing.

More for "overwhelming"

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.