Standard Lemma guide

overpay

verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /oʊ.vɚ.peɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪ
  • CMU ARPABET: OW1 V ER0 P EY2 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To pay too much.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive

Examples

  • I think we overpaid for that old car.
  • Be careful not to overpay when buying second-hand items.
  • The customer accidentally overpaid and was refunded.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To be more than an ample reward for.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

pay too much

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: underpay

Broader terms: pay

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Old English ofer- Middle English over- English over- English pay English overpay From over- + pay.

Across languages

Translations

15 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: плащам прекалено много (plaštam prekaleno mnogo) — to pay too much
  • Chinese Mandarin: 支付得太多 (zhīfù de tài duō) — to pay too much
  • Chinese Mandarin: 多付 (duōfù) — to pay too much
  • Chinese Mandarin: 給......的工資過高 /给......的工资过高 (gěi ... de gōngzī guògāo) — to pay too much
  • Dutch: teveel betalen — to pay too much
  • Finnish: maksaa liikaa — to pay too much
  • French: surpayer — to pay too much
  • German: überbezahlen — to pay too much
  • Hungarian: túlfizet — to pay too much
  • Ido: pluspagar — to pay too much
  • Japanese: 余分に払う (yobun ni harau) — to pay too much
  • Polish: przepłacać — to pay too much
  • Polish: przepłacić — to pay too much
  • Russian: перепла́чивать (perepláčivatʹ) — to pay too much
  • Russian: переплати́ть (pereplatítʹ) — to pay too much