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
Avni Trivedi,
CNN Money,
24 June 2026
Once relying on its massive missile arsenal, advances in Israeli intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance have neutered its previous strategy of relying on simultaneous barrages of missiles to overwhelm Israeli missile defenses.
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Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
24 June 2026
When the day came to an end, the client called me in tears, overwhelmed by how personal and meaningful the journey had been.
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Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
24 June 2026
Failure to pursue these prevention policies now may well launch a medical crisis within two decades for a substantial part of our population who will likely overwhelm the medical community with their spinal issues and potentially create as much as a trillion dollar burden on the nation’s economy.
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Michael Gerling,
Fortune,
24 June 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 26 Jun. 2026.
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overwhelm
verb
