Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of overact
That secret shakes Charlie’s love for his intended, messes with work, affects his performance in bed and prompts him to spiral out, overacting at every step.
—
Mark Kennedy, Boston Herald, 2 Apr. 2026
Adrien Brody can’t stop overacting in a commercial for TurboTax.
—Dee-Ann Durbin, Fortune, 8 Feb. 2026
On-screen, the speech’s prestige can overwhelm its existential subject matter, and the passage tends to get overacted.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2025
Snook and Lacy, who display such sharp instincts in their best work, seem to have been directed to overact; cameras freeze on their exaggeratedly bewildered or angry or devastated expressions, putting exclamation points at the end of too many scenes.
—Judy Berman, Time, 6 Nov. 2025
His presence is fresh, empathetic, often hypnotic, and never overacted.
—Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire, 24 Oct. 2025
One could easily be accused of overacting, of doing too much.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 20 Feb. 2025
The college student performers from the Hartt School aren’t encouraged to overact during the party scene anymore — no more drunk jokes or pratfalls.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 11 Dec. 2024
Mark Kennedy, Boston Herald, 2 Apr. 2026
Adrien Brody can’t stop overacting in a commercial for TurboTax.
—Dee-Ann Durbin, Fortune, 8 Feb. 2026
On-screen, the speech’s prestige can overwhelm its existential subject matter, and the passage tends to get overacted.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 15 Dec. 2025
Snook and Lacy, who display such sharp instincts in their best work, seem to have been directed to overact; cameras freeze on their exaggeratedly bewildered or angry or devastated expressions, putting exclamation points at the end of too many scenes.
—Judy Berman, Time, 6 Nov. 2025
His presence is fresh, empathetic, often hypnotic, and never overacted.
—Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire, 24 Oct. 2025
One could easily be accused of overacting, of doing too much.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 20 Feb. 2025
The college student performers from the Hartt School aren’t encouraged to overact during the party scene anymore — no more drunk jokes or pratfalls.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 11 Dec. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for overact
Verb
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Sometimes the functional sibling learns to compensate or cover for the dysfunctional one, to underplay strengths or wear a mask.—
Christine Smallwood,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
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Others say such comments underplay the consequences of the oil blockade.—
Kate Linthicum,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Lue has tried to stagger their minutes to not overplay them.—
Janis Carr,
Oc Register,
22 Mar. 2026
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One of the dangers with this particular title is that actors overplay, thinking that the show-within-a-show and period style offer some license in that direction.—
Chris Jones,
Chicago Tribune,
18 Mar. 2026
Verb
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No waiver is in place for the 2026-27 academic year, however, so a final year of college basketball for Buchanan will hinge on whether something similar will be enacted again for non-NCAA transfers.—
Shaun Goodwin,
Idaho Statesman,
6 Apr. 2026
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In setting new standards for the film-and-television industry, while also raising wages and benefits, this agreement was precisely the sort of thing Dube is advocating for other sectors to adopt, even though it was enacted through collective bargaining rather than by government action.—
John Cassidy,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
Verb
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If previous records massaged her hedonism into silky, professional-grade pop, the sound on WOR$T GIRL is all sinew and scrap metal, a leaner and meaner vehicle for acting out.—
Harry Tafoya,
Pitchfork,
2 Apr. 2026
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Bimbofication is the act of dressing like an attractive dumb woman and acting out the part.—
Brian Niemietz,
New York Daily News,
1 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The installation is a winking reference to the Turing test, the 1950 thought experiment about whether a machine can credibly imitate a person.—
Ronan Farrow,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
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Each of the wounded imitated the pain and symptoms of an injury that could happen on the battlefield.—
Chelsea Torres,
FOXNews.com,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Today, Margaret would be playacting her own massacre in active shooter drills at school.—
Petula Dvorak,
Washington Post,
1 May 2023
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Trixie advises Alma to playact highness to flummox E.B.—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
18 Dec. 2021
Verb
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With Trump back in office, American audiences are understandably more closely watching films from distant lands that dramatize authoritarianism, seeking clues from those nations’ past to understand our present.—
Tim Grierson,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
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There was no contradiction for these women in using sacred imagery to dramatize erotic love, or Scripture to sanctify desire.—
Chandler Fritz,
The New York Review of Books,
21 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Martha Stewart, who introduced her followers to the tradition in 2005, resurrected the dessert a few days ago on Instagram with a photo of a cake expertly decorated with chocolate curls mimicking a lamb’s wooly coat.—
Lisa Gutierrez
April 3,
Kansas City Star,
3 Apr. 2026
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The proposal would need to be approved by Israel’s political leadership, which has already indicated a preference for carrying out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure to establish a buffer zone, mimicking similar actions in Gaza.—
Leila Gharagozlou,
CNN Money,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Overact.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/overact. Accessed 9 Apr. 2026.
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