Spillover
noun
noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 That which overflows; the excess or side effect. countable, uncountable
"The spillover from the dam due to the heavy rains will run down this channel and harmlessly dump into that river, we hope."
- 2 (economics) any indirect effect of public expenditure wordnet
- 3 The spread of infectious disease between different species of animal and particularly to humans. countable, uncountable
"We’re not establishing the kind of safe practices that will minimize the opportunity for spillover. If we better understood where these viruses are circulating and understood that ecology, we would have the potential to disrupt and minimize the risk of spillover."
Example
More examples"The spillover from the dam due to the heavy rains will run down this channel and harmlessly dump into that river, we hope."
Etymology
From spill + over.
Related phrases
More for "spillover"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.