overwrite

UK/əʊ.vəˈɹaɪt/US/oʊ.vɚˈɹaɪt/

overwrite verb: to destroy (older) data by recording new data over it.

Verb

overwrite (third-person singular simple present overwrites, present participle overwriting, simple past overwrote, past participle overwritten)

(transitive) To destroy (older) data by recording new data over it.
- I accidentally saved my unwanted changes and overwrote the version of the document I wanted to keep.
(transitive) To cover in writing; to write over the top of.
(ambitransitive) To write too much.
- Many trainees consider that by increasing the length of the piece they will construct a good feature. This is often not the case and overwriting can lead to vague and muddled features that confuse the reader and ultimately lose their interest.2013, Richard Rudin, Trevor Ibbotson, Introduction to Journalism
(ambitransitive) To write in an unnecessarily complicated or florid way; to produce purple prose.
- The Times of course has to pay the price of encyclopaedism by being often dreadfully overwritten, with long paragraphs connected by motley conjunctions.1954, Edwin H. Ford, Edwin Emery, Highlights in the History of the American Press: A Book of Readings, U of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 367
- He overwrites constantly, but his detailed and understated one-paragraph description of Monroe's apartment in New York (pp. 216-18) injects high voltage into the de casibus tradition.1986, David Novarr, The Lines of Life: Theories of Biography, 1880-1970, Purdue University Press, →ISBN, page 162

overwrite (plural overwrites)

The operation of destroying older data by recording new data over it.
- Tab to the number specifying the number of overwrites and enter a number between 1 and 9.2014, Bruce Middleton, Conducting Network Penetration and Espionage in a Global Environment

மேலெழுதுக, மேலெழுதுதல்

ತಿದ್ದು, ತಿದ್ದಿಬರೆ, ಮಿತಿಮೀರಿಬರೆ

The autogenerated code should not be edited, since it may be automatically overwritten by the same process.
A file with the read-only attribute set cannot be overwritten.
Having saved header.php, I FTPed it back to the Sandbox theme folder, overwriting the old version.

Verb
third-person singular present	overwrites
present participle	overwriting
past	overwrote
past participle	overwritten
Noun
plural	overwrites

From over- + write.

What does overwrite mean?: Overwrite means to destroy (older) data by recording new data over it.
What is overwrite in Tamil?: Overwrite in Tamil is மேலெழுதுக, மேலெழுதுதல். See Overwrite meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is overwrite?: Overwrite can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce overwrite?: Overwrite is pronounced /əʊ.vəˈɹaɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of overwrite?: The past tense of overwrite is overwrote.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-overwrite.wav.

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