Word.ws English Dictionary

overdescribe

overdescribe verb: to provide an overly detailed description.

Verb

overdescribe (third-person singular simple present overdescribes, present participle overdescribing, simple past and past participle overdescribed)

  1. To provide an overly detailed description.
    • Never overdescribe your setting. Why run the risk of boring readers?1998, James V. Smith, You Can Write a Novel, →ISBN, page 44
    • There is a third reason for misdescription: the drafter's irrepressible impulse to overdescribe.2012, Leo Katz, Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law, →ISBN

Forms of overdescribe

third-person singular presentoverdescribes
present participleoverdescribing
past participleoverdescribed
pastoverdescribed

Origin of overdescribe

From over- + describe.

Questions about overdescribe

What does overdescribe mean?
Overdescribe means to provide an overly detailed description.
What part of speech is overdescribe?
Overdescribe is a verb.
What is the past tense of overdescribe?
The past tense of overdescribe is overdescribed.

Words near overdescribe in the dictionary

  1. overdepresses
  2. overdepressing
  3. overdepression
  4. overdepressions
  5. overdepressive
  6. overdescribe
  7. overdescribed
  8. overdescribes
  9. overdescribing
  10. overdescription
  11. overdescriptions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overdescribe (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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