overreliance

noun

over·​re·​li·​ance ˌō-vər-ri-ˈlī-ən(t)s 

: the act or state of relying on something or someone too much : excessive reliance

One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our overreliance on fossil fuels.

—Barack Obama

I shy away from prescribing sleeping pills … to avoid overreliance on them.

—Andrew Weil

Examples of overreliance in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The consequences of overreliance on property taxes plus increasing levies are stark. —Joe Ferguson, Chicago Tribune, 11 Feb. 2026

Pitfalls of overreliance Still, there are risks around bias and potential overreliance on AI, according to Chen. —Lisa Eadicicco, CNN Money, 9 Feb. 2026

In fact, the doctor shortage has led to unwise remedies such as overreliance on PAs. —Betsy McCaughey, Boston Herald, 8 Feb. 2026

The report goes further, explaining that most failures stem not from the models themselves, but from poor integration into real workflows, overreliance on generic tools, and a tendency for companies to treat AI as a standalone experiment rather than embedding it into core operations. —Michael Wystrach, Fortune, 29 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1833, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for overreliance

• appliance
• compliance
• defiance
• reliance
• geoscience
• neuroscience
• noncompliance
• pseudoscience
• science