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

If anything, the calendar is overcrowded—regional events, niche summits, vendor roadshows, invite-only forums, virtual meetups that could have been emails. —Tony Bradley, Forbes.com, 20 Jan. 2026

Specific lounges may not be available at these airports, or they may be inconveniently located or overcrowded. —Jason Stauffer, CNBC, 20 Jan. 2026

In October, detainees at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, filed a lawsuit claiming they were being held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions as well as being denied confidential and efficient access to counsel. —Matt Rivers, ABC News, 19 Jan. 2026

The lack of housing also means that many families are overcrowded in small apartments, the report says. —Ginny Monk, Hartford Courant, 18 Jan. 2026

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