Word.ws English Dictionary

overtense

overtense adjective: excessively tense.

Adjective

overtense (comparative more overtense, superlative most overtense)

  1. Excessively tense.

Verb

overtense (third-person singular simple present overtenses, present participle overtensing, simple past and past participle overtensed)

  1. (transitive) To make too tense.

Forms of overtense

Adjective
comparativemore overtense
superlativemost overtense
Verb
third-person singular presentovertenses
present participleovertensing
past participleovertensed
pastovertensed

Origin of overtense

From over- + tense.

Questions about overtense

What does overtense mean?
Overtense means excessively tense.
What part of speech is overtense?
Overtense can be an adjective or a verb.

Words near overtense in the dictionary

  1. overtempts
  2. overtenacious
  3. overtender
  4. overtenderly
  5. overtenderness
  6. overtense
  7. overtensed
  8. overtenseness
  9. overtenses
  10. overtensing
  11. overtension

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overtense (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: “overtense.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overtense. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.