overwhelm
verb
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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
Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 12 Sep. 2025
Celery can overwhelm a chicken salad if the pieces are too big.
—Ann Taylor Pittman, Southern Living, 12 Sep. 2025
Typical treatment uses an oxygen mask or hyperbaric chamber to overwhelm the body with oxygen, pushing the carbon monoxide molecules off the hemoglobin cells so that oxygen can attach instead.
—Sara Novak, Scientific American, 11 Sep. 2025
As experts, the members of Forbes Business Council have experience implementing customer service best practices without exceeding their budget or overwhelming their team.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for overwhelm
Cite this Entry
“Overwhelm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overwhelm. Accessed 15 Sep. 2025.
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overwhelm
verb
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