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

The new building became severely overcrowded almost immediately. —Jonathan Entin, The Conversation, 2 Apr. 2026

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees struggling to survive in Bangladesh’s overcrowded camps will see their food assistance slashed starting on Wednesday, raising alarm throughout the increasingly desperate community. —ABC News, 31 Mar. 2026

Workers described living in overcrowded containers infested with cockroaches and bedbugs, with access to only one or two showers per year and in some cases just a single day off annually. —Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 29 Mar. 2026

Puppies sold in pet stores or online come from puppy mills, where dogs are housed in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions without veterinary care, adequate food or water, or socialization. —Elise Gingrich, Denver Post, 29 Mar. 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