overwhelm
verb
Did you know?
Let’s face it: life can get overwhelming. A person might be overwhelmed by a sensory experience or emotion; a city might be overwhelmed by an influx of tourists. Things can underwhelm, too: a bland meal, a bare wall, a lackluster playlist. But how often does an experience just, well, whelm you? The answer, unassumingly, is just as often as one overwhelms you—the two verbs are in fact largely synonymous. Both come from Middle English whelmen, meaning "to overturn," and overwhelm has always been more popular, perhaps because the emphatic redundancy of overwhelm makes it seem more apt for describing reactions to powerful forces or feelings.
Examples of overwhelm in a Sentence
Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer, 7 Nov. 2025
Some people who are worried about vaccines argue the number of different antigens and other ingredients could overwhelm a child's immune system.
—NPR, 7 Nov. 2025
The move comes amid escalating Russian attacks using waves of Shahed-136 drones and missile salvos meant to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 6 Nov. 2025
The flood of people overwhelmed Bajo Chiquito, an impoverished community of 382 members of the Indigenous Emberá-Wounaan people.
—Daniel Gonzalez, AZCentral.com, 5 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for overwhelm
Cite this Entry
“Overwhelm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overwhelm. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
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overwhelm
verb
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