overcome
Syllables: o·ver·comeUK/ˌəʊ.vəˈkʌm//ˌoʊ.vəɹˈkʌm/
overcome verb: to surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of.
Verb
overcome (third-person singular simple present overcomes, present participle overcoming, simple past overcame, past participle overcome)
- To surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of.
- But sith this wretched woman ouercome / Of anguish, rather then of crime hath beene,1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 58
- By and by fumes of brandy began to fill the air, and climb to where I lay, overcoming the mouldy smell of decayed wood and the dampness of the green walls.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- hurdle
- To prevail.
- Hee that ouercommeth, the same shalbe clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the booke of life, but I will confesse his name before my Father, and before his Angels.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 3:5
- We shall overcome because Carlyle is right; "no lie can live forever".1968, Martin Luther King Jr., (Please provide the book title or journal name)
- To recover from (a difficulty), to get over.
- To win against or prevail over in some sort of battle, contest, etc.
- to overcome enemies in battle
- Ther with all cam kyng Arthur but with a fewe peple and slewe on the lyfte hand and on the ryght hand that wel nyhe ther escaped no man / but alle were slayne to the nombre of xxx M / And whan the bataille was all ended the kynge kneled doune and thanked god mekely / and thenne he sente for the...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “iij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV
- Synonyms:
- vanquish
- To come or pass over; to spread over.
- I was overcome with anger.
- And overcome us like a summer's cloud.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Synonyms:
- overtake
- To overflow; to surcharge.
- A Crop so plenteous, as the Land to load,
O'ercome the crowded Barns1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC - Th' unfallow'd Glebe Yearly o'ercomes the Granaries with Store Of Golden Wheat.1708, [John Philips], “(please specify the page)”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC
- A Crop so plenteous, as the Land to load,
Noun
overcome (plural overcomes)
Adjective
overcome (not comparable)
- That has been overcome, prevailed over.
overcome meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
overcome in Tamil
- விஞ்சி மேம்படு, வெற்றி கொள், வெற்றிகொள், சுதாரி
overcome in Marathi
- मात करणे
overcome in Urdu
- عاجز, مغلوب, مسخر, غالب آنا, غالب ہونا, غلبہ کرنا
overcome in Bengali
- পরাস্ত, অভিভূত, অতিক্রম করা, পরাস্ত করা, জয় করা, অভিভূত করা
More languagesFewer languages
- overcome in Telugu
- అధిగమించండి, అధిగమించడానికి, అధిగమించటానికి
- overcome in Malayalam
- തരണം taraṇaṁ
- overcome in Kannada
- ಮಣಿಸು, ಸೋಲಿಸು, ಎದುರಾಳಿಗಿಂತ ಮೇಲುಗೈಯಾಗು, ಅಧೀನಪಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳು
- overcome in Sanskrit
- सहते sahate
- overcome in Arabic
- هَزَمَ hazama, غَلَبَ ḡalaba, قَهَر qahar
- overcome in Indonesian
- mengatasi
- overcome in Persian
- چیرادن
- overcome in Thai
- เอาชนะ ao-chá-ná, ครอบงำ krɔ̂ɔp-ngam
- overcome in Vietnamese
- vượt qua
Examples of overcome in a sentence
- A high thrust-to-weight ratio helps a rocket to overcome the effects of gravity drag.
- It's admirable that Shelley overcame her handicap and excelled in her work.
- It took years to overcome the anguish from my wife's death.
Synonyms of overcome
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of overcome
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | overcomes |
| present participle | overcoming |
| past | overcame |
| past participle | overcome |
| alternative poetic | o'ercome |
| Noun | |
| plural | overcomes |
Origin of overcome
Inherited from Middle English overcomen, inherited from Old English ofercuman (“to overcome, subdue, compel, conquer, obtain, attain, reach, overtake”). By surface analysis, over- + come. Cognate with Dutch overkomen, German überkommen, Danish overkomme, Swedish överkomma.
Words formed from overcome
Words that rhyme with overcome
Questions about overcome
- What does overcome mean?
- Overcome means to surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of.
- What is overcome in Tamil?
- Overcome in Tamil is விஞ்சி மேம்படு, வெற்றி கொள், வெற்றிகொள். See Overcome meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is overcome?
- Overcome can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce overcome?
- Overcome is pronounced /ˌəʊ.vəˈkʌm/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of overcome?
- The past tense of overcome is overcame.
Words near overcome in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overcome (page history and authors); overcome (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); overcome (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); overcome (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); overcome (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); overcome (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); തരണം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); overcome (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-overcome.ogg.
Cite this entry: “overcome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overcome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.