overdiagnose
overdiagnose verb: to diagnose something more often than it actually occurs.
Verb
overdiagnose (third-person singular simple present overdiagnoses, present participle overdiagnosing, simple past and past participle overdiagnosed)
- To diagnose something more often than it actually occurs.
- Health experts deny claims that they overdiagnose mental health conditions.
- Dissociative identity disorder is a contentious diagnosis: some professionals say the disorder is overdiagnosed; others say it doesn't even exist.2009 January 11, Jeanne Dorin Mcdowell, “The Four (at Least) Faces of Tara”, in New York Times
- Antonyms:
- underdiagnose
- To diagnose as a clinical case what is truly a subclinical case.
- Her GP incorrectly referred her to a pulmonologist, overdiagnosing what was clearly a case of subclinical, mild allergy.
Antonyms of overdiagnose
Forms of overdiagnose
| third-person singular present | overdiagnoses |
|---|---|
| present participle | overdiagnosing |
| past participle | overdiagnosed |
| past | overdiagnosed |
Origin of overdiagnose
From over- + diagnose.
Questions about overdiagnose
- What does overdiagnose mean?
- Overdiagnose means to diagnose something more often than it actually occurs.
- What part of speech is overdiagnose?
- Overdiagnose is a verb.
- What is the past tense of overdiagnose?
- The past tense of overdiagnose is overdiagnosed.
Words near overdiagnose in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overdiagnose (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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Cite this entry: “overdiagnose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overdiagnose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.