as in caught
to move fast enough to get even with
she had to hurry to overtake her friends, who had forgotten their umbrellas the thunderstorm overtook them suddenly
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Recent Examples of overtaken
Both fires have been overtaken by the Jones and Snyder Mesa blazes that started on the western side of the Colorado-Utah border Saturday and burned their way into Colorado.
—
Logan Smith,
CBS News,
28 June 2026
Today, the once-massive grandstand has been reduced to just a few sections of seats; the rest has been overtaken by the Resorts World Casino, which opened in 2011 with electronic games.
—
Henry Kornaros,
Curbed,
26 June 2026
While the pastel was trending earlier this year, it’s officially been overtaken by its more summery sister.
—
Jake Henry Smith,
Glamour,
24 June 2026
My job is gonna get overtaken by AI.
—
Cara Lynn Shultz,
PEOPLE,
19 June 2026
The metal-and-white motif of the subway car was overtaken by blue and orange, and the conductor’s announcements were drowned out by chants.
—
Vinson Cunningham,
New Yorker,
18 June 2026
My mum, meanwhile, has just been overtaken by my sister for second place.
—
Jacob Whitehead,
New York Times,
16 June 2026
And this comes at a time when Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI in Enterprise Adoption.
—
Sandy Carter,
Forbes.com,
13 June 2026
Today that benchmark has been overtaken by something more complex.
—
Yinka Adegoke,
semafor.com,
10 June 2026
Logan Smith,
CBS News,
28 June 2026
Today, the once-massive grandstand has been reduced to just a few sections of seats; the rest has been overtaken by the Resorts World Casino, which opened in 2011 with electronic games.
—
Henry Kornaros,
Curbed,
26 June 2026
While the pastel was trending earlier this year, it’s officially been overtaken by its more summery sister.
—
Jake Henry Smith,
Glamour,
24 June 2026
My job is gonna get overtaken by AI.
—
Cara Lynn Shultz,
PEOPLE,
19 June 2026
The metal-and-white motif of the subway car was overtaken by blue and orange, and the conductor’s announcements were drowned out by chants.
—
Vinson Cunningham,
New Yorker,
18 June 2026
My mum, meanwhile, has just been overtaken by my sister for second place.
—
Jacob Whitehead,
New York Times,
16 June 2026
And this comes at a time when Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI in Enterprise Adoption.
—
Sandy Carter,
Forbes.com,
13 June 2026
Today that benchmark has been overtaken by something more complex.
—
Yinka Adegoke,
semafor.com,
10 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for overtaken
Verb
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Transfer Josh Derry quickly caught the attention of his teammates and coaches, who raved about his explosiveness and his work ethic during spring camp.
-
The vandals got to it, they’ve largely been caught and are being prosecuted.
Verb
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Perhaps the problem arose from the extravagant expectations of American life, the sense that bad luck will always be chased by good fortune and that the poor man is merely someone who has yet to strike it rich.
-
What is the metaphor for young people being chased by monsters really about?
Cite this Entry
“Overtaken.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/overtaken. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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