overload

noun

over·​load ˈō-vər-ˌlōd 

plural overloads

: an excessive load or amount of something

an overload of cargo

an overload of details

If your dog is suffering from an overload of stress, he will appear depressed, inactive, sluggish and unresponsive.

—Daniel Seligman

You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias or hope or arrogance …

—Philip Roth

If you're a regular reader of blogs, … you've probably been frustrated from time to time by information overload: the blogosphere creates way too much material for any human being to comfortably digest.

—Chris Taylor

Large department stores tend to bring on sensory overload [=overstimulation of the senses] …

—Stephen O'Shea and Joan Harting

Examples of overload in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Stepping away from work for even 30 minutes helps lower cognitive overload and gives your nervous system a chance to recalibrate before work stress follows you home. —William Jones june 8, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 June 2026

Medical practitioners also see reduced cognitive overload since the tools and process makes many parts of everyone’s jobs easier. —Dr. Jonathan Reichental, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026

The grid facing power shortages must know which sources will send extra power, which lines can carry it and what to do if the transfer creates overloads elsewhere. —Sufan Jiang, Fortune, 30 May 2026

Lorie describes the process as a practical answer to digital overload. —Matthew Kayser, USA Today, 28 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1645, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for overload

• afterload
• episode
• internode
• microcode
• multimode
• nematode
• nesselrode
• overflowed
• overrode
• radioed
• torpedoed
• trematode