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 road repair budget is inflated due to overreliance on outside contractors and an under-resourced internal team. —Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 May 2025

But the precipitous decline in the Chinese and travel-retail markets, coupled with an overreliance on saigou and an anemic innovation pipeline, took their toll. —Jenny B. Fine, Footwear News, 7 May 2025

Currently, a significant vulnerability stems from the overreliance on Chinese repair ships. —John Calabrese, The Conversation, 10 Apr. 2025

Jonathan Goodman, a fitness entrepreneur who has built business without overreliance on social media, says there’s a better way to use social media tools for marketing. —Megan Poinski, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1833, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for overreliance

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