Word.ws English Dictionary

oversea

Syllables: over·sea/ˌəʊ.vəˈsiː/US/ˌoʊ.vɚˈsi/

oversea is the alternative form of overseas.

Meaning of overseas

Adjective

overseas (not comparable)

  1. Abroad, especially across the sea.
    • Overseas branches of the company are doing well.
    Antonyms:
    domestic
  2. Used with ethnicities, nationalities, or religious affiliations: living (being resident) in a foreign country.
    • Overseas Chinese communities exist in North and South America.
  3. Across a sea; to or in an area across a sea.
    • Her overseas trip went well.

See all 5 meanings of overseas

Origin of oversea

From Middle English over-se, over see, ouer sea, from Old English ofer sǣ (literally “over/across (the) sea”); equivalent to over + sea. Compare West Frisian oerseesk, Dutch overzee, German Übersee, Danish oversøisk.

Words formed from oversea

Words that rhyme with oversea

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about oversea

What is oversea the alternative form of?
Oversea is the alternative form of overseas.
How do you pronounce oversea?
Oversea is pronounced /ˌəʊ.vəˈsiː/ (UK).

Words near oversea in the dictionary

  1. overscrubs
  2. overscrupulosity
  3. overscrupulous
  4. overscrupulously
  5. overscrupulousness
  6. oversea
  7. overseal
  8. oversealed
  9. oversealing
  10. overseals
  11. overseam

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oversea (page history and authors); overseas (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-oversee.wav.

Cite this entry: “oversea.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oversea. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.