Past tense of overwhelm
regular verb
The past tense of overwhelm is overwhelmed. The past participle is also overwhelmed.
Forms of overwhelm
| Base form (V1) | overwhelm /ˌəʊ.vəˈ(h)wɛlm/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | overwhelmed /ˌəʊvəˈwɛlmd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | overwhelmed /ˌəʊvəˈwɛlmd/ |
| Present participle | overwhelming /ˌəʊvəˈwɛlmɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | overwhelms |
Overwhelmed in a sentence
- The dinghy was overwhelmed by the great wave.
- He was overwhelmed with guilt.
- When they saw the poor orphans, they were overwhelmed with tenderness for them.From the entry tenderness
- Totally overwhelmed by now, I started to hand out the fliers willy-nilly.From the entry by now
- I got overwhelmed by the loud music and had to go into another room to destim.From the entry destim
Meaning of overwhelm
- verb To engulf, surge over and submerge.
- verb To overpower, crush.
- verb To overpower emotionally.
Questions about the past tense of overwhelm
- What is the past tense of overwhelm?
- The past tense of overwhelm is overwhelmed.
- What is the past participle of overwhelm?
- The past participle of overwhelm is overwhelmed.
- Is overwhelm a regular or irregular verb?
- Overwhelm is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overwhelm (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of overwhelm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/overwhelm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.