overcrowded

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

Examples of overcrowded in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

With no warrants or papers, they are thrown into overcrowded and squalid detention centers with little medical care. —Bob Kustra, Chicago Tribune, 6 July 2025

Health care providers, after years of building on the periphery where land was cheaper and easier to obtain, continue to look for ways to get closer to customers and relieve pressure on their overcrowded emergency rooms. —Aldo Svaldi, Denver Post, 5 July 2025

Many of Cincinnati's migrants lived in unsanitary, overcrowded tenements that were badly neglected by landlords. —Erin Couch, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

For years, the site served a variety of industrial tenants until the City of Indianapolis took over in the late 1990s and used the building as a jail for the overcrowded Marion County jail system. —Alysa Guffey, IndyStar, 2 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

from past participle of overcrowd

First Known Use

1725, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for overcrowded

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