Word.ws English Dictionary

overman

US/ˈoʊvɚmən/

overman noun: a person who supervises others; a supervisor, especially in a mine.

Noun (1)

overman (plural overmen)

  1. A person who supervises others; a supervisor, especially in a mine.
    • Despite the effects of the disease, he was subsequently promoted to overman and thereafter to undermanager.1980, Great Britain. Dept. of Health and Social Security, Reported Decisions of the Social Security Commissioner
    Synonyms:
    foreman

Noun (2)

overman (plural overmen)

  1. A man with great powers; a superman.

Verb

overman (third-person singular simple present overmans, present participle overmanning, simple past and past participle overmanned)

  1. To provide with too many personnel; overstaff.

Proper noun capitalized: Overman

Overman

  1. A surname.
    • Honourable Members will perceive that it is stated, on the authority of Mr. Overman, vice-chairman of the Ampthill board, that the wages of the labourers in his neighbourhood had been raised since the law came into operation.1838, John Henry Barrow, The Mirror of Parliament

Synonyms of overman

Forms of overman

Noun
pluralovermen
Verb
third-person singular presentovermans
present participleovermanning
past participleovermanned
pastovermanned

Origin of overman

From Middle English overman (“a superior; leader; master”). Compare superman. By surface analysis, over- + man.

From over- + man, as a calque of German Übermensch.

From over- + man (verb).

Words formed from overman

Questions about overman

What does overman mean?
Overman means a person who supervises others; a supervisor, especially in a mine.
What part of speech is overman?
Overman can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce overman?
Overman is pronounced /ˈoʊvɚmən/ (US).
What is the plural of overman?
The plural of overman is overmen.

Words near overman in the dictionary

  1. overmajorities
  2. overmajority
  3. overmake
  4. overmakes
  5. overmaking
  6. overman
  7. overmanage
  8. overmanaged
  9. overmanagement
  10. overmanages
  11. overmanaging

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overman (page history and authors); Overman (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: “overman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.