Word.ws English Dictionary

overexact

overexact adjective: too exact; overscrupulous; pedantic; overprecise.

Adjective

overexact (comparative more overexact, superlative most overexact)

  1. Too exact; overscrupulous; pedantic; overprecise.
    • A chirp response to a conscientious challenger, a fling at some overexact and hypercritical examiner, a rumble of applause at the expense of "the college fellows" or in support of "old-time fire" have accompanied the canvassing of a case, and men have been "put through" In a fit of fervor not at...1885, Ernest George Henham, The Methodist Review, Phillips & Hunt, page 811
    • The effort to account for every copy serves no real purpose, because the copies that are not counted often do the advertiser most good, while copies that are sold sometimes fail to ever meet a reader’s eye. The attempt to be overexact wastes much time, and the result is usually a statement that can...1899, Lucy H. Yates, Printers' Ink 1899-07-19: Volume 28, Issue 3, Decker Communications Incorporated, Geo. P. Rowell and Company, page 29

Examples of overexact in a sentence

  • The attempt to be overexact wastes much time, and the result is usually a statement that can be understood in several different ways.1899, Lucy H. Yates, Printers' Ink 1899-07-19: Volume 28, Issue 3, Decker Communications Incorporated, Geo. P. Rowell and Company, page 29:
  • If, on the other hand, he is overexact or very loose in his statements, reluctant or unable to give a good reason for what he says, he will be distrusted and discredited.1910, Gilbert Holland Stewart, Legal Medicine, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 30:
  • He actually perceived the word overexact, and stated definitely that he saw all the letters!1915, Benjamin Dunville, The Fundamentals of Psychology:A Brief Account of the Nature and Development of Mental Processes, Clive, page 70:

Forms of overexact

comparativemore overexact
superlativemost overexact

Origin of overexact

From over- + exact.

Words formed from overexact

Questions about overexact

What does overexact mean?
Overexact means too exact; overscrupulous; pedantic; overprecise.
How do you use overexact in a sentence?
The attempt to be overexact wastes much time, and the result is usually a statement that can be understood in several different ways.
What part of speech is overexact?
Overexact is an adjective.

Words near overexact in the dictionary

  1. overevaluated
  2. overevaluates
  3. overevaluating
  4. overevaluation
  5. overevaluations
  6. overexact
  7. overexactness
  8. overexaggerate
  9. overexaggerated
  10. overexaggerates
  11. overexaggerating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overexact (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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