as in overlying
to lie over parts of one another
the brochures on the display table should overlap but not so much that the titles are obscured
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in intersecting
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of overlapping
IEEE Spectrum, 2 Oct. 2025
Unfortunately, Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith have somewhat overlapping skillsets.
—Mike Defabo, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
During the 1960s, a period which saw the rise of overlapping and intersecting social movements, many of these student-run papers emerged as uncensored alternatives to traditional outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.
—Joshua Finnell, JSTOR Daily, 1 Oct. 2025
By cleaning up the existing tangle of overlapping truck routes, servicing these areas would take fewer trucks and fewer crew hours.
—Connor Giffin, Louisville Courier Journal, 1 Oct. 2025
Miami Beach faces overlapping challenges — flooding, traffic, overdevelopment, overtourism, short-term rentals, crime and rising costs — that threaten our quality of life.
—Miami Herald Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2025
Kennedy and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for much of their overlapping tenures represented the ideological center of the court at a time when the institution became increasingly conservative.
—Nina Totenberg, NPR, 27 Sep. 2025
Perhaps the most obvious example of Roberts' overlapping roles was laid out in a 2022 request for more IEDC funding from the Battery Innovation Center, where federal nonprofit filings show Roberts was serving as board chair.
—Hayleigh Colombo, IndyStar, 25 Sep. 2025
Questions over whether Nvidia 's $100 billion pledged investment in OpenAI to fund the development of Nvidia-centric data centers seems to have prompted a round of scrutiny over a possible eventual endgame of overcapacity and overlapping partnerships and vendor relationships.
—Michael Santoli, CNBC, 23 Sep. 2025
Adjective
Once those long reads are obtained, powerful bioinformatics software is used to build longer stretches of contiguous sequence by overlapping reads that share the same sequence of bases.
—IEEE Spectrum, 2 Oct. 2025
Unfortunately, Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith have somewhat overlapping skillsets.
—Mike Defabo, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
During the 1960s, a period which saw the rise of overlapping and intersecting social movements, many of these student-run papers emerged as uncensored alternatives to traditional outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.
—Joshua Finnell, JSTOR Daily, 1 Oct. 2025
By cleaning up the existing tangle of overlapping truck routes, servicing these areas would take fewer trucks and fewer crew hours.
—Connor Giffin, Louisville Courier Journal, 1 Oct. 2025
Miami Beach faces overlapping challenges — flooding, traffic, overdevelopment, overtourism, short-term rentals, crime and rising costs — that threaten our quality of life.
—Miami Herald Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2025
Kennedy and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for much of their overlapping tenures represented the ideological center of the court at a time when the institution became increasingly conservative.
—Nina Totenberg, NPR, 27 Sep. 2025
Perhaps the most obvious example of Roberts' overlapping roles was laid out in a 2022 request for more IEDC funding from the Battery Innovation Center, where federal nonprofit filings show Roberts was serving as board chair.
—Hayleigh Colombo, IndyStar, 25 Sep. 2025
Questions over whether Nvidia 's $100 billion pledged investment in OpenAI to fund the development of Nvidia-centric data centers seems to have prompted a round of scrutiny over a possible eventual endgame of overcapacity and overlapping partnerships and vendor relationships.
—Michael Santoli, CNBC, 23 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for overlapping
Verb
-
Earth’s substantial atmosphere and geomagnetic field block most (but not all) of this bombardment, and the sunless interiors of worlds without these properties still get protection from overlying material.—
Emma R. Hasson,
Scientific American,
17 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
With intersecting stripes of various colors and widths, the quintessential fall print is a timeless style that always resurges at this time of year.—
Nicol Natale,
PEOPLE,
23 Sep. 2025
-
Add to this fact that Isabelle’s assistant, Dani, also professes her love for her and there’s quite a lot of intersecting queerness in this entry.—
Mathew Rodriguez,
Them.,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Your narcissistic side is really lapping it up, but also the humble side, or the fake humble side, is like, ‘Oh no.—
Nick Romano,
Entertainment Weekly,
4 Oct. 2025
-
Sea views pour into the main deck too, where a silvery metal ceiling ripples with the tactility of lapping waves.—
Tristan Rutherford,
Robb Report,
26 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Unlike cash, bonds, property or stocks, Bitcoin does not entitle the owner to any underlying asset, interest, or cash flow.—
Jim Edwards,
Fortune,
7 Oct. 2025
-
Men’s products always come out with a slight, underlying red tone.—
The Editors,
Robb Report,
4 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Podlesí is notorious for its boring atmosphere, overlaying everything like a thick blanket.—
Zuzana Říhová,
Literary Hub,
26 Sep. 2025
-
Last year at Connect, Meta unveiled its Orion glasses, which are a prototype capable of overlaying complex 3D visuals onto the physical world.—
Jonathan Vanian,
CNBC,
20 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Again, the superposed vector can be decomposed into its constituents.—
Anil Ananthaswamy,
Quanta Magazine,
13 Apr. 2023
-
Like entanglement, the superposed states essential to its power are fragile, collapsing when measured or otherwise perturbed by the outside world.—
Gabriel Popkin,
Science | AAAS,
3 June 2021
Adjective
-
While social traits appear to be convergent among different species here on Earth, there’s also no reason to think that something similar would not happen elsewhere in our great cosmic beyond, Bryson argues in her Reykjavik talk.—
Bruce Dorminey,
Forbes.com,
25 Aug. 2025
-
This area, which falls along the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench or Kuril Trench, is known as a convergent boundary.—
USA Today,
USA Today,
30 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Overlapping.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/overlapping. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share