overexpansion

noun

over·​ex·​pan·​sion ˌō-vər-ik-ˈspan(t)-shən How to pronounce overexpansion (audio)
plural overexpansions
: excessive expansion : the act or an instance of expanding too much or too quickly
… by 1946 the firm had collapsed and was closed, a victim of overexpansionArline Fisch
… ran into fiscal trouble … because of an overexpansion in the 1990s, coupled with overspending when it was a public company.Carrie Mason-Draffen
… railed against what they saw as government overexpansionJ. P. Gairhan

Examples of overexpansion in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web And both suffer from the overexpansion of secondary characters, a kind of narrative clutter. Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2023 More recently, Amazon’s business suffered a decline because of overexpansion. Rachel Lerman, Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2023 After years of overexpansion, Rite Aid and other big pharmacy chains have struggled. Andrew Torgan, CNN, 22 Dec. 2021 Amazon’s growth, however, slowed to its lowest rate in two decades, and Jassy has been reeling in the company’s overexpansion. Karen Weise, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Jan. 2023 Since taking over for founder Jeff Bezos last July, Jassy’s main priorities have involved cutting costs and minimizing the pain of e-commerce overexpansion under his predecessor, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 17 June 2022 Finally, there is the expansion of the money supply — overexpansion, that is — resulting in more money sloshing around in the economy than can reasonably be spent on goods and services. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 Nov. 2021 In 2018, Mattress Firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after years of overexpansion, and closed about 700 stores while grappling with a financial scandal at its parent company and intense competition. Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY, 26 Aug. 2021 Papyrus blamed an overexpansion of stores, the downturn in brick-and-mortar shopping and its inability to recover fully from the 2008 financial crisis. Jordan Valinsky, CNN, 12 Dec. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'overexpansion.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1862, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of overexpansion was in 1862

Dictionary Entries Near overexpansion

Cite this Entry

“Overexpansion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overexpansion. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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