Word.ws English Dictionary

overamplify

overamplify verb: to amplify to an extent that distorts the original sound or signal.

Verb

overamplify (third-person singular simple present overamplifies, present participle overamplifying, simple past and past participle overamplified)

  1. To amplify to an extent that distorts the original sound or signal
    • Pastor Andres's public voice was deep and rumbly; with the mike overamplifying him, and the faint Hispanic accent, he was hard to understand.2006, Sara Paretsky, Fire Sale, page 109
  2. To amplify to an extent that is undesirably loud.
    • Physiological thresholds can differ from behavioral thresholds by ±15–20 dB HL. Thus, without verification of behavioral responses with amplification, hearing aids may underamplify or overamplify.2006, Patricia Spencer, Advances in the Spoken-Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, →ISBN
    • What is interesting to note here is that the 2⁄3 gain can be seen to overamplify over the curved line of the impaired ear more than underamplifies, whereas the 1⁄3 gain curve illustrates the opposite, where it tends to underamplify sound to the ear.2014, Michael J. Metz, Sandlin's Textbook of Hearing Aid Amplification, →ISBN

Forms of overamplify

third-person singular presentoveramplifies
present participleoveramplifying
past participleoveramplified
pastoveramplified

Origin of overamplify

From over- + amplify.

Questions about overamplify

What does overamplify mean?
Overamplify means to amplify to an extent that distorts the original sound or signal.
What part of speech is overamplify?
Overamplify is a verb.
What is the past tense of overamplify?
The past tense of overamplify is overamplified.

Words near overamplify in the dictionary

  1. overamping
  2. overamplification
  3. overamplifications
  4. overamplified
  5. overamplifies
  6. overamplify
  7. overamplifying
  8. overamps
  9. overanaesthetise
  10. overanaesthetised
  11. overanaesthetises

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overamplify (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “overamplify.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overamplify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.