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

For those in need of a refresher, Rodón’s early-inning, overreliance on his fastball is routinely putting the Yankees behind in games, as batters are hunting the pitch. —Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 13 July 2024

Anecdotal evidence suggests this overreliance on floaties is a meaningful factor in the childhood drowning crisis, which remains the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4. —Lisa M Zarda, The Mercury News, 11 July 2024

Such overreliance is likely to promote questionable research practices, including hypothesizing after the results are known, or HARKing; splitting a single set of data into several papers, known as salami slicing; data manipulation; and plagiarism. —Lonni Besançon, Discover Magazine, 11 July 2024

But overreliance on Chinese suppliers is risky, according to a 2022 analysis by the European Parliament. —Harriet Marsden, The Week Uk, theweek, 3 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1833, in the meaning defined above