Standard Lemma guide

overwhelmed

adj · 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

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General-American: /ˌoʊvɚˈ(h)wɛlmd/
Received-Pronunciation: /ˌəʊvəˈwɛlmd/
US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET: OW2 V ER0 W EH1 L M D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
CMU ARPABET 2: OW2 V ER0 HH W EH1 L M D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

adj

Meaning 1

Emotionally overpowered.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

completely overwhelmed
emotionally overwhelmed
She was overwhelmed with gratitude.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

adj

Meaning 2

Emotionally overpowered.

Carrying a metaphorical burden greater than one can comfortably handle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: often

Examples

He felt overwhelmed by the workload.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

verb

Meaning 3

simple past and past participle of overwhelm

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, participle, past

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Word forms

Inflections and variants

more overwhelmed — comparative
most overwhelmed — superlative

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: overwhelmedness, unoverwhelmed

Related: none provided

Spelling and sound

Hyphenation and homophones

Hyphenation: over·whelmed

Semantic map

Other relationships

Sources

Where this information comes from

Wiktionary data was expanded into structured fields by Wiktextract. Matching Princeton WordNet definitions and semantic relationships, plus CMUdict ARPABET pronunciations, are merged into this same canonical word page.

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Changes made: Wiktionary markup was removed and matching senses were grouped; WordNet and CMUdict evidence was merged into the canonical word page. Source quotations with separate cited works are not republished.

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Real reading context

Examples

Meaning relationships

Examples

Meaning relationships

Meaning relationships

overwhelmed in complete knowledge articles