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

Recent research showed that overreliance on groundwater during the drought caused irreparable harm to the county’s aquifers. — Daniel Lempres, Sacbee.com, 25 Aug. 2026

Many of those names have been ridiculed for their overreliance on throwaway clichés. — Andrew Moshirnia, The Conversation, 12 Aug. 2026

More than four in 10 respondents said their biggest concern is that overreliance on AI could weaken critical thinking. — Preston Fore, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2026

Natural gas has the potential to help fill Africa’s electricity availability gap, but global demand for it also stems from a push by Europe to diversify its gas sources, following years of overreliance on Russia. — Alexander Onukwue, semafor.com, 20 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1833, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for overreliance

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