overcrowded

1 of 2

adjective

over·​crowd·​ed ˌō-vər-ˈkrau̇-dəd 

: crowded or filled to excess : having too many people or things

overcrowded streets/cities/classrooms

living in overcrowded conditions

… having an overcrowded space can make it hard for buyers to … visualize their own belongings in the space, said Los Angeles-based designer Francesca Grace.

—Jennifer Tzeses

… some 5 million workers commute for up to three hours on trains so overcrowded that there seem to be as many passengers hanging on to the outside of the carriages as there are inside.

—Ismail Merchant

overcrowded

2 of 2

past tense and past participle of overcrowd

Examples of overcrowded in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Some parents in Woodland have been left wondering where their kids will go to school next year as a population shift in the city is causing some campuses to become overcrowded. — James Taylor, CBS News, 18 Aug. 2026

The crimes homeless people will get charged for are not the ones that will keep them in the county’s already overcrowded jails, Lefkowitz said. — Laura Horne, Charlotte Observer, 17 Aug. 2026

Students who learn in overcrowded classrooms, with parents who can’t help them with homework, quickly fall behind. — Ryan Lenora Brown, Christian Science Monitor, 12 Aug. 2026

In overcrowded, understaffed facilities, residents were too often neglected and stripped of privacy, autonomy, or any meaningful connection to their communities. — Barbara Merrill, Time, 11 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

from past participle of overcrowd

First Known Use

Adjective

1725, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for overcrowded

• clouded
• crowded
• shrouded
• enshrouded
• unclouded
• uncrowded