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

This can aid, of course, in forecasting crowds and park staffing, but is also intended to limit days in which the park can feel overcrowded. — Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2026

Big schools in the flatlands—that is, not the wealthy hills—were overcrowded and failing. — Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2026

Employees who come into overcrowded offices and can’t find an effective place to work eventually stop believing in the mandate that brought them there in the first place. — Micah Remley, Forbes.com, 28 Sep. 2026

All our main hospitals are overcrowded and have chronic issues with staffing shortages. — David Cox, NPR, 26 Sep. 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