overwhelm
verb
Did you know?
Let’s face it: life can get overwhelming. A person might be overwhelmed by a sensory experience or emotion; a city might be overwhelmed by an influx of tourists. Things can underwhelm, too: a bland meal, a bare wall, a lackluster playlist. But how often does an experience just, well, whelm you? The answer, unassumingly, is just as often as one overwhelms you—the two verbs are in fact largely synonymous. Both come from Middle English whelmen, meaning "to overturn," and overwhelm has always been more popular, perhaps because the emphatic redundancy of overwhelm makes it seem more apt for describing reactions to powerful forces or feelings.
Examples of overwhelm in a Sentence
Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 16 Mar. 2026
As such, cane chairs are an excellent option for small dining rooms or breakfast nooks, offering function without overwhelming these spaces.
—Sarah Lyon, Southern Living, 16 Mar. 2026
But with no sign of the en masse mathematical onslaught slowing down, a deluge of LLM-written, subtly wrong proofs may soon overwhelm human resources.
—Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 16 Mar. 2026
Strauss leaned into the idea that viewers generally are overwhelmed by streaming platforms that offer dozens if not hundreds of titles but little curation.
—Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 15 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for overwhelm
Cite this Entry
“Overwhelm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overwhelm. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
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overwhelm
verb
